Moderna, Inc.’s claims to have sole rights to a patent covering a key component of its COVID-19 vaccine could push the US government to change the terms of its contracts with companies to protect itself from future disputes. Experts say the National Institutes of Health and other agencies have been lax in these agreements, failing to ensure they were in the best interests of the public.
The New York Times reported last week that Moderna had filed a patent application on the genetic sequence used in its vaccine and told the US Patent and Trademark Office that NIH scientists did not co-invent that component, listing Moderna’s
