A British drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has sued American pharmaceutical company Moderna claiming it violated patent rights in its mRNA technology used to develop its COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.

The Mandl team was originally employed by Novartis, but GSK acquired rights to their work and intellectual property when it acquired Novartis' global vaccine business in 2015. Only by tapping into this earlier work was Moderna able to bring its mRNA vaccines to market so swiftly, the suits claim.

Moderna was hit with a new patent lawsuit on Wednesday in Delaware federal court from Northwestern University, which accused the company of misusing the school's innovations to develop its blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.

GlaxoSmithKline is suing Moderna for allegedly using technology patented by GSK in its COVID-19 vaccine. Why it matters: It's the latest in a series of legal fights over who owns the intellectual property behind mRNA technology and whether some companies are entitled to royalties on future sales.

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline sued Moderna in U.S. federal court in Delaware on Tuesday, accusing it of violating GSK patent rights in messenger RNA technology with its blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax and RSV shot mResvia.