March 4 (Reuters) - Moderna shares rose 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the company settled a long-running legal battle over the technology that made its COVID-19 vaccine possible, removing an overhang and allowing it to focus on its pipeline.
Analysts noted the settlement, which involves paying up to $2.25 billion to a Roivant Sciences' Genevant subsidiary, and Arbutus Biopharma, would shift investor focus back to Moderna's cancer vaccines that are under development. This resolves all
U.S. and international legal actions accusing Moderna of unauthorized use of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology owned by Genevant and Arbutus in its COVID vaccine.
"The company (now) has certainty it is well funded through multiple late-stage oncology readouts expected in 2026 that represent new long-term growth drivers," said William Blair analyst Myles Minter.
Moderna will pay $950 million upfront in July 2026, with an additional $1.3 billion contingent on the outcome of a separate legal appeal, while not owing royalties for the technology in its future vaccines, which is seen as a significant win for the company.
The payments are not as substantial as Wall Street had feared to be more than $3 billion, said Citi analyst Geoffrey Meacham.
Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen said, however, if the payment does become necessary, it could reduce the company's cash reserves to as low as $3.2 billion by 2026. Moderna expects its reserves to be between $4.5 billion to $5 billion this year.
Breen added this "narrows the tightrope" for the company, as timing and scale of its lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech for infringing patents related to mRNA technology is unknown, and its management has been known to be too optimistic in the past.
In 2022, Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech for infringing patents related to mRNA technology. BioNTech countersued Moderna in February, arguing Moderna's next-generation COVID-19 shot, MNEXSPIKE, infringes one of its patents.
(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
