Representatives of Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Promosome attorney Bill Carmody said in a statement that the vaccine makers have “failed to give Promosome what it deserves” for creating groundbreaking technology. San Diego and New York-based Promosome was formed to commercialize technology developed by biochemistry researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
The vaccines use mRNA to send instructions to the immune system for producing specific proteins to fight the COVID-19 virus. Promosome said its technology enables the immune system to produce sufficient proteins to fight the virus with small doses of mRNA. The lawsuits said Promosome met with Moderna between 2013 and 2016 to discuss licensing the technology and that Promosome’s president demonstrated it to a senior BioNTech scientist in 2015. Promosome said neither company agreed to a license.