Bayer Seeks Covid-Vaccine Royalties Over Crop-Technology Patent

Bayer AG filed federal lawsuits seeking royalties for Covid-19 vaccine sales by Johnson & Johnson, Moderna Inc., and partners Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, alleging the shots infringe a patent developed to help genetically engineered crops make insect-resistant proteins.

The German company’s Bayer CropScience LP and Monsanto subsidiaries said in complaints filed Tuesday that the vaccines infringe US Patent No. 7,741,118 because they were made using methods to modify genetic sequences to improve mRNA stability and protein expression.

Bayer sued J&J and its Janssen units in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. It ...