Moderna settles for $2.25B in COVID-19 vaccine patent battle; when clinicians struggle with substance use; AI-powered CT scans could fast-track diagnoses – Morning Medical Update

Moderna end long-running COVID-19 vaccine legal battle with $2.25B settlement

Moderna will pay up to $2.25 billion to resolve a long-running patent dispute tied to the technology used in its COVID-19 vaccine. The settlement with Genevant Sciences and Arbutus Biopharma centers on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology, which helps protect fragile mRNA molecules and deliver them into human cells. Moderna will pay $950 million upfront in 2026, with another $1.3 billion contingent on the outcome of a related legal appeal. The agreement ends multiple U.S. and international lawsuits accusing the company of using the LNP technology without permission and also means Moderna will not owe royalties for the technology in future vaccines. Analysts said the deal removes a major legal overhang as the company pivots toward new mRNA products, including cancer vaccines and combination respiratory shots. Reuters has more.

When clinicians struggle with substance use

Physicians and nurses who use alcohol or illegal drugs say it can affect the care they provide, according to a Swedish study of nearly 3,300 health care professionals. Researchers found clinicians who reported substance use were significantly more likely to rate the quality of their own patient care as poor one year later. Overall, 3.8% reported problematic alcohol use and 1.3% reported illegal drug use, but among those who believed they had delivered low-quality care, about one-quarter reported problematic drinking and nearly one-third reported drug use. Researchers say stigma and fear of job consequences may keep clinicians from seeking help early, allowing problems to surface only after mistakes occur. The findings underscore a broader concern: heavy workloads, stress and burnout in health care may drive substance use that ultimately threatens both clinician well-being and patient safety.

AI-powered CT scans could fast-track diagnoses

Artificial intelligence (AI) may soon help clinicians get more from routine CT scans. Supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers developed a machine learning model, called “Merlin,” that can analyze 3D abdominal CT scans and perform a wide range of tasks, from identifying anatomy to predicting disease years before symptoms appear.

The system was trained on more than 15,000 CT scans linked to radiology reports and nearly one million diagnostic codes from Stanford University School of Medicine. In testing across more than 50,000 scans from multiple hospitals, Merlin predicted diagnostic codes correctly more than 81% of the time and identified patients at higher risk of developing chronic diseases within five years about 75% of the time. Researchers say tools like Merlin could eventually speed clinical assessments and uncover disease markers that might be missed by the human eye, potentially allowing clinicians to move more quickly from imaging to diagnosis. The research is published in Nature.