Moderna Faces LNP Patent Lawsuit, Key Issues Head to Jury Trial

In the Delaware patent-infringement suit filed by Arbutus Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ: ABUS) and Genevant against Moderna, the court ruled on February 2 that most of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine sales are not shielded by the federal “government use” immunity under 28 U.S.C. § 1498. It transferred the bulk of Arbutus’s claims to a jury trial in U.S. District Court, leaving only doses provided to U.S. government employees for resolution in the Court of Federal Claims.

In the same litigation, the court further narrowed the issues for trial. It barred certain infringement-by-equivalents arguments on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) patents due to case-management limits, and it excluded portions of both parties’ expert testimony related to Section 1498, inequitable-conduct allegations, and indefiniteness.

In a separate partial summary judgment, the court precluded Moderna from raising obviousness defenses against several “mole-fraction” LNP patents, while reserving questions of enablement and other validity challenges for the jury.

Meanwhile, after the European Patent Office recently revoked Arbutus’s key LNP patent EP 2279254, the company’s share price plunged about 19%. Arbutus said the EPO decision does not directly affect its ongoing patent lawsuits against Moderna in the U.S., Japan or Canada. As of the end of Q3 2025, Arbutus held approximately $94 million in cash and cash equivalents—roughly KRW 120 billion.

Arbutus is a clinical-stage biotech developing an infectious-disease pipeline that includes the chronic hepatitis B therapy Imdusiran and the PD-L1 inhibitor AB-101. Through subsidiary equity stakes and licensing, the company seeks to maximize the value of its proprietary LNP drug-delivery platform. Because this LNP technology overlaps with the mRNA vaccine platforms used by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the outcome of these patent disputes could be a crucial factor in future royalty revenues and negotiating leverage.