If Felgner went from 0 to 0.5 and Malone from 0.5 to 0.51, why should Malone not be considered co-inventor? From the first letter to Felgner (1/7/88) it seems Malone could have been a clever newcomer and a threat to Felgner's career. Theres probably a lot of narcissism and ego in all of them. Malones website evolution displays hes an opportunist.

However it may be, I dont understand why people in microbiology and related fields arent as cooperative as in experimental physics. The paper for LIGO detector had dozens of cooauthor and nobody claims "I invented LIGO". There are probably key contributions for a dozen of people with regards to mRNA. Be aware these might be political games behind the door you and me dont know of.