Arbutus Initiates International Patent Infringement Enforcement Actio…

Arbutus and licensee Genevant filed three international patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech over lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology used in COVID-19 vaccines, seeking injunctions and damages across Canada and 20 European countries. The company also received $178M from a Moderna settlement and plans to return approximately $230M to shareholders. If you licence biotech IP to vaccine or therapeutics makers, Arbutus just proved the royalty model works at scale: $178M from Moderna, and now leverage to extract damages from Pfizer and BioNTech across two continents. Your patent portfolio is now an asset class, not a defensive moat.