Stephane Bancel, the Chief Executive Officer of Moderna Inc., said on Wednesday that the company had suspected BioNTech SE of using its intellectual property in the production of a competing vaccine from the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Last month, Moderna filed a lawsuit alleging that BioNTech and its partner, Pfizer Inc., infringed upon its patents throughout the process of developing the first vaccination for Covid-19 to be licenced for use in the United States.
While in Tokyo, Bancel said that Moderna is contemplating constructing production facilities in Japan in order to manufacture mRNA-derived goods.