Moderna's Covid jab patent row deepens as US NIH looks to defend co-owner claim

Asserting that it had played "a major role" in developing Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, US National Institutes of Health is going to court over co-ownership of its patent.

NIH Director Dr Francis Collins told Reuters news agency thatNIH scientistshad contributed immensely in making the vaccine.

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In its application filed in July, Moderna excluded three NIH scientists as co-inventors of a central patent for the company's multibillion-dollar COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

In a statement emailed to Reuters, Moderna acknowledged that scientists at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) played a "substantial role" in developing messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine of the company, but it disagreed with the agency's patent claims.

Earlier, Japan had put on hold a batch of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine after a pharmacist saw what he claims to be black particles in one vial of the vaccine.

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According to officials, the pharmacist found the black particles while checking for foreign substances before the vaccine’s use in Kanagawa Prefecture.

The development had come less than a week after Japan suspended the use of about 1.63 million Moderna doses due to contamination.

More than 3,000 people had already received shots from the batch. The rest of the batch was put on hold.

(With inputs from agencies)