After raking in billions for their Covid-19 vaccines, big pharmaceuticals are headed to the courts over patent infringements.

Moderna is suing Pfizer and BioNTech for allegedly copying its foundational mRNA technology.

Moderna says that it had filed these patents between 2010 and 2016.

These companies had based their Covid-19 vaccines on this technology as the world rushed to find safe and effective ways of reducing the impact of the coronavirus.

Traditional vaccines rely on injecting weakened, or dead forms of a virus so that the body can recognise it and build antibodies.

But mRNA-based vaccines instruct cells to build a harmless piece of the spike protein found on the virus that causes Covid-19.

The cells can then recognise and fight the real virus.

In October 2020, Moderna said that it would not enforce its Covid-19 related patents during the pandemic, but now it’s changed its stance.