SK Bioscience Wins Patent Dispute Against Pfizer Over Pneumococcal Vaccine

SK Bioscience Wins Patent Dispute Against Pfizer Over Pneumococcal Vaccine

South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling of a lower court, that the product did not come under the patent claims

SK bioscience, a subsidiary of the SK Group, has announced that it has won a patent lawsuit against global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over pneumococcal vaccine components.

In 2020, Pfizer filed a lawsuit with a Korean court, claiming that SK bioscience's export of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) components and finished products for research to Russia infringed on the composition patent of its vaccine Prevnar 13.

Recently, South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the ruling of a lower court that SK bioscience's PCV13 does no come in the ambit of Pfizer's patent claims. It held that the production and export of PCV13 products for research purposes did not constitute patent infringement.

SK bioscience developed SKYPneumo, South Korea's first domestically produced PCV13, in 2016.

However, due to a separate patent dispute with Pfizer, the company stays restricted from manufacturing and selling the vaccine in South Korea until 2027, which is when the related patents will expire.

The company hoped the ruling would open the door to exporting individual PCV13 components to countries with high vaccine demand, particularly in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Meanwhile, parallelly, SK bioscience is developing a 21-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in collaboration with Sanofi S.A. It entered global Phase 3 clinical trials in late 2024.

Ahn Jae-yong, the Chief Executive Officer of SK bioscience stated, "The court’s decision is meaningful and ensures that a competitively developed vaccine in Korea does not go to waste but instead finds a new opportunity.”

Jae-yong added, "We will leverage this momentum to improve access to premium vaccines, contribute to a stable global vaccine supply, and achieve sustainable growth.”

Recently, SK bioscience won a patent invalidation case against Moderna, the global developer of the messenger RNA (mRNA) Covid-19 vaccine. (Moderna is the only registered patent in South Korea for the mRNA manufacturing technology).

In 2023, SK bioscience filed a nullity suit, challenging Moderna's patent on modified nucleosides, nucleotides, and nucleic acids and their uses.

It contended that the patent "unfairly granted priority rights, which hindered the development of the mRNA technology."