Lindsay Androski

Stories

Moderna's battle over the delivery technology in its COVID vaccine

As of May 2026: Evaluating return of capital to shareholders

For four years, Moderna faced questions about whether it owed billions for technology at the heart of its COVID-19 vaccine. Less than a week before a jury trial in Delaware, Moderna agreed to pay $2.25 billion to settle patent claims from Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences. The court found it infringed four valid patents, and if paid in full, it would be the largest disclosed patent settlement in pharmaceutical history, surpassing a $2.15 billion Pfizer-Takeda settlement in 2013.

Updated May 30

Notable Quotes

"Nobel laureates, industry executives, and prominent researchers have long recognized that Arbutus scientists changed the drug development landscape when they invented LNP delivery technology... Today, Moderna has finally acknowledged the same. This is a transformative outcome for Arbutus as a company, but more importantly, it is a long-overdue recognition that the COVID-19 vaccines would never have made it to the world without the seminal work of Ian MacLachlan, Ed Yaworski, Lloyd Jeffs, Kieu Lam, Lorne Palmer, and Cory Giesbrecht." — Statement on March 3, 2026

from Moderna's battle over the delivery technology in its COVID vaccine · Updated May 30