Judge Bars Moderna Expert’s Covid-Shot Royalty Damages Analysis

Moderna Inc. can’t present its comparable-license royalty opinion at trial in Arbutus Biopharma Corp.’s Covid-19 vaccine patent suit after a federal judge ruled it improperly relied on Spikevax sales.

Judge Joshua D. Wolson granted part of Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and Genevant Sciences GmbH’s motion to exclude expert testimony, barring Moderna’s damages expert from presenting his reasonable royalty opinion and related noninfringing-alternatives analysis, according to an opinion issued Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

But the judge, sitting by designation from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, declined to exclude testimony from two other Moderna experts, allowing ...