Item 4. Controls and Procedures

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2022. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2022, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the three months ended March 31, 2022, which have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, believes that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and are effective at the reasonable assurance level. However, our management does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by the collusion of two or more people or by a management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

PART II

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We are involved in various claims and legal proceedings of a nature considered ordinary course in our business, including the intellectual property litigation described below. Most of the issues raised by these claims are highly complex and subject to substantial uncertainties. For a description of risks relating to these and other legal proceedings we face, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of our 2021 Form 10-K filed in February 2022, including the discussion under the headings entitled “Risks related to our intellectual property,” and “Risks related to the manufacturing of our commercial products, development candidates, investigational medicines and our future pipeline.”

The outcome of any such proceedings, regardless of the merits, is inherently uncertain; therefore, assessing the likelihood of loss and any estimated damages is difficult and subject to considerable judgment. We describe below those legal matters for which a material loss is either (i) possible but not probable, and/or (ii) not reasonably estimable at this time.

Proceedings Related to Patents Owned by Arbutus

On February 28, 2022, Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Arbutus) and Genevant Sciences GmbH (Genevant) filed a complaint against Moderna in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware asserting that Moderna’s manufacture, use, offer to sell, or sales within the United States (as well as importation into the United States) of its COVID-19 vaccine, or active inducement of the same, willfully infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 8,058,069, 8,492,359, 8,822,668, 9,364,435, 9,504,651, and 11,141,378, which concern lipid nanoparticles. The action is Arbutus Biopharma Corp. et al. v. Moderna Inc. et al., Case No. 1:22-cv-00252-MN (D. Del.). Arbutus and Genevant are not seeking to prevent or stop the marketing or sales of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. The complaint seeks a judgment of infringement of the asserted patents, monetary damages (together with interest), costs and expenses of the lawsuit, and attorneys’ fees.

Proceedings Related to Patents Owned by Alnylam

On March 17, 2022, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Alnylam) filed a complaint against Moderna in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware asserting that Moderna’s manufacture, use, offer to sell, or sales within the United States (as well as import into the United States) of its COVID-19 vaccine, or active inducement of the same, infringes U.S. Patent No. 11,246,933, which issued on February 15, 2022, and concerns cationic lipids. The action is Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Moderna, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:22-cv-00335-CFC (D. Del.). Alnylam is not seeking to prevent or stop the marketing or sales of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. The complaint seeks a judgment of infringement of the asserted patent, monetary damages (together with interest), costs and expenses of the lawsuit, and attorneys’ fees.