The chapter on Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA patent feud with Germany’s CureVac is coming to a close, even as lawsuits over the vaccine technology continue to play out on several other fronts.

Pfizer and BioNTech have settled a patent lawsuit brought by CureVac in the U.S. The deal will see BioNTech pay out cash and extend royalties from sales of its Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 vaccine to CureVac and its mRNA licensee GSK in exchange for a non-exclusive license to make, import and sell mRNA-based prophylactics domestically.

GSK's involvement in the case is complicated and unrelated to separate litigation it has brought against Pfizer and BioNTech over similar infringement claims.

GSK and CureVac partnered on the development of mRNA vaccines in 2020 and restructured their team-up into a new licensing agreement last July. Under the amended collaboration, GSK handed CureVac 400 million euros ($466 million) upfront for full rights to develop, manufacture and sell mRNA vaccines for COVID and flu.

But a rift has apparently emerged since BioNTech moved to buy out CureVac for $1.2 billion in June, with GSK recently intervening in its partner's patent litigation with Pfizer and BioNTech over concerns that CureVac would not pursue the case properly.

"CureVac and GSK were once partners," lawyers for GSK said in a legal filing (PDF) last month. "Now, after the proposed acquisition was announced, CureVac has turned its loyalties to its former litigation adversary, BioNTech, demonstrating it can no longer be trusted to adequately represent GSK’s interest in this litigation."

Under the new settlement with CureVac and GSK, BioNTech will pay $370 million and supply an ongoing 1% royalty payment on U.S. sales of Pfizer and BioNTech’s licensed products, effective at the beginning of 2025, BioNTech said in an Aug. 8 press release.

GSK will receive $320 million of the settlement payment upfront in cash, the British drugmaker said in a Friday press release (PDF). As for the other $50 million, GSK is realizing that value through an amendment to its own CureVac agreement. Under the amended pact, GSK will benefit from a “significant reduction” in the amount of royalties it will have to pay CureVac on potential future mRNA vaccines for flu, COVID or a combination of the two, according to the release.

Should the CureVac acquisition close, GSK is in line to receive another $130 million from BioNTech and a 1% royalty on global sales of applicable mRNA products. Crucially, the completion of BioNTech’s buyout would also knock out remaining litigation brought by CureVac against Pfizer and BioNTech outside the U.S.

Meanwhile, once the merger of the German mRNA specialists either goes through or fails, CureVac itself will also receive $370 million and a 1% royalty on U.S. sales of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccines.

BioNTech stressed that the settlement does not “in any way constitute an admission of liability with respect to any allegation raised by CureVac or GSK,” noting that it “expressly denies” all such claims.

While GSK benefits from the CureVac settlement, the resolution doesn’t eliminate the separate mRNA patent litigation case the British pharma giant brought against Pfizer and BioNTech last April, GSK said in its release.

In that legal action, filed in Delaware federal court, GSK accused Pfizer and BioNTech of infringing five patents related to mRNA vaccine technology. GSK claimed at the time that the relevant research on the platform had been conducted “more than a decade” before the COVID-19 pandemic and rightly belonged to GSK after it purchased a “substantial portion” of Novartis’ global vaccine business in 2015.

As is the case with many of the patent litigation cases targeting companies with marketed COVID shots, GSK caveated in its lawsuit that it would be “willing to license these patents on commercially reasonable grounds" in order to preserve access to approved inoculations.

CureVac, for its part, first brought its case against BioNTech back in 2022, initially accusing its German mRNA compatriot of treading on four patents related to the engineering of mRNA molecules, including sequence modifications for stability and mRNA vaccine formulations specific to SARS-CoV-2.

CureVac subsequently added more claims to its lawsuit and accused BioNTech of violating at least 10 patents related to mRNA vaccine technology as of July 2023.

While CureVac’s patent litigation saga is wrapping up, disputes over mRNA intellectual property continue to roil elsewhere.

Aside from GSK’s separate and ongoing mRNA litigation against Pfizer and BioNTech, the British drugmaker has also sued Moderna on similar claims. And Moderna has filed suit against Pfizer and BioNTech over alleged patent infringement, too. Several smaller mRNA players have gotten into the mix, as well.