University of Pennsylvania will receive $467 million from BioNTech as part of a settlement in a lawsuit over COVID-19 vaccine royalties, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

In an August lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, Penn claimed it was owed additional royalties from BioNTech for using its patented technology in developing the vaccine.

The university alleged that the Germany-based company underpaid for its use of ‘foundational’ messenger RNA technology, developed by Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman. The Penn professors were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking research.

BioNTech developed the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty in partnership with Pfizer. The vaccine has generated over $110 billion in worldwide sales.

Penn alleged BioNTech only paid the university royalties for the vaccine sales in countries where Penn holds a patent. However, the lawsuit alleged, the company is required to pay royalties on all sales of a vaccine that was produced in a country where the university has a patent.

The $467 million settlement includes $400 million in royalties from 2020 to 2023, a maximum of $15 million for a three-year extension of the vaccine alliance, and $52 million for a joint research and development fund.

Read more about the Penn and BioNTech settlement in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on PHILADELPHIA Today in January 2025.