(Reuters) – BioNTech has entered into two separate settlement agreements with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennyslvania over the payment of royalties related to its COVID-19 vaccine, the company said in filings on Friday.
The German company, which partners with U.S. pharma giant Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine, said it would pay $791.5 million to the U.S. agency under the agreement.
BioNTech has taken the license for certain patents from the NIH, among other entities, due to which the U.S. government is owed certain royalty payments.
Separately, the company will pay $467 million to the University of Pennyslvania, which will dismiss a lawsuit brought against the vaccine maker accusing it of underpaying royalties.
Penn’s lawsuit said that BioNTech received a sublicense to the school’s technology through another company in 2017, which it later used to develop the vaccine, Comirnaty, with Pfizer.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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