On Dec. 27, 2024, BioNTech announced it had entered into two separate settlement agreements with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) over the payment of royalties related to its COVID-19 vaccine.

The German company, which partners with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine, said it would pay $791.5 million to the U.S. agency to resolve a default notice.

Separately, the company will pay $467 million to the UPenn, which has agreed to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the vaccine maker accusing it of underpaying royalties. BioNTech said partner Pfizer will reimburse it for up to $170 million of the royalties payable to UPenn and $364.5 million of the royalties paid to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 2020-2023 vaccine sales.

The company also amended its license agreements with both NIH and UPenn, agreeing to pay a low single-digit percentage of its vaccine net sales to both the entities.

Both settlements include a framework for a license to use NIH and Penn’s patents in combination products.