Clearing the fog of anticancer patents from 1993-2013: through an in-depth technology landscape & target analysis from pioneer research institutes and universities worldwide

Patent Landscape Analysis of Dental Caries in Primary Teeth

Inventions from the field of health research are mostly protected by patents. The main objective of this study is to identify the research and development trends of dental innovations for children, with a special focus on the inventions for dental caries in primary teeth and early childhood caries (ECC) by performing a patent landscape analysis on a global scale with special attention to the role of European countries in patenting activities. A patent landscape analysis is a tool used to identify trends in different areas of innovations. Patents and patent applications were extracted from Orbit Intelligence. The keyword based search process was refined by manual selection and grouped into prevention, treatment and diagnosis categories. The absolute number and legal status of patent families, priority years, priority countries, and assignees were examined. The total number of patents of dental caries in primary teeth was 61. According to the legal status of the patents, 27% are granted, 19% pending and 54% are dead. The earliest patent is from 1931 and the most recent is from 2018. Regarding the field of inventions, 37 patents were identified as prevention, 16 patents were treatment and 8 were diagnostics related. China holds the most patents. The huge burden of dental caries in primary teeth is poorly represented in global research and development. Additionally, inventions in dental caries of the primary dentition from the European Union lagged far behind China and the US, highlighting our insufficient research initiatives and programs.

What Has Come out from Phytomedicines and Herbal Edibles for the Treatment of Cancer?

Several modern treatment strategies have been adopted to combat cancer with the aim of minimizing toxicity. Medicinal plant-based compounds with the potential to treat cancer have been widely studied in preclinical research and have elicited many innovations in cutting-edge clinical research. In parallel, researchers have eagerly tried to decrease the toxicity of current chemotherapeutic agents either by combining them with herbals or in using herbals alone. The aim of this article is to present an update of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds, or mere changes in the bioactive compounds, along with herbal edibles, which display efficacy against diverse cancer cells and in anticancer therapy. It describes the basic mechanism(s) of action of phytochemicals used either alone or in combination therapy with other phytochemicals or herbal edibles. This review also highlights the remarkable synergistic effects that arise between certain herbals and chemotherapeutic agents used in oncology. The anticancer phytochemicals used in clinical research are also described; furthermore, we discuss our own experience related to semisynthetic derivatives, which are developed based on phytochemicals. Overall, this compilation is intended to facilitate research and development projects on phytopharmaceuticals for successful anticancer drug discovery.

Patent landscape of neglected tropical diseases: an analysis of worldwide patent families

BACKGROUND

"Neglected Tropical Diseases" (NTDs) affect millions of people in Africa, Asia and South America. The two primary ways of strategic interventions are "preventive chemotherapy and transmission control" (PCT), and "innovative and intensified disease management" (IDM). In the last 5 years, phenomenal progress has been achieved. However, it is crucial to intensify research effort into NTDs, because of the emerging drug resistance. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the term NTDs covers 17 diseases, namely buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue, dracunculiasis, echinococcosis, trematodiasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, rabies, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthes, taeniasis, trachoma, and yaws. The aim of this study is to map out research and development (R&D) landscape through patent analysis of these identified NTDs. To achieve this, analysis and evaluation have been conducted on patenting trends, current legal status of patent families, priority countries by earliest priority years and their assignee types, technological fields of patent families over time, and original and current patent assignees.

MAIN BODY

Patent families were extracted from Patseer, an international database of patents from over 100 patent issuing authorities worldwide. Evaluation of the patents was carried out using the combination of different search terms related to each identified NTD. In this paper, a total number of 12,350 patent families were analyzed. The main countries with sources of inventions were identified to be the United States (US) and China. The main technological fields covered by NTDs patent landscape are pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, organic fine chemistry, analysis of biological materials, basic materials chemistry, and medical technology. Governmental institutions and universities are the primary original assignees. Among the NTDs, leishmaniasis, dengue, and rabies received the highest number of patent families, while human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), taeniasis, and dracunciliasis received the least. The overall trend of patent families shows an increase between 1985 and 2008, and followed by at least 6 years of stagnation.

CONCLUSION

The filing pattern of patent families analyzed undoubtedly reveals slow progress on research and development of NTDs. Involving new players, such as non-governmental organizations may help to mitigate and reduce the burden of NTDs.

Patent trend and competitive analysis of cancer immunotherapy in the United States

Immunotherapy has brought high hopes for cancer treatment, and attracted tremendous resources from the biopharmaceutical community. Here we analyze cancer immunotherapy-related patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the past decade (2006-2016). A total of 2,229 patents were identified in 13 subfields. The growth of patent number in this field has outpaced the background rate, with cytokine-related therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and natural killer cell therapies growing the most rapidly. The top 15 assignees possess 27.6% (616) of the patents. Amgen is the largest patent holder, followed by Novartis, and then by Chugai Seiyaku. The top assignees have focused on different subfields, and collaborated with each other for technology development. Our competitive analysis reveals that Novartis, Chugai Seiyaku, and Abbvie lead in both patent number and average quality of patents. Meanwhile, Immunomedics owns a high-quality though relatively small patent portfolio in single-chain variable fragment technology, which is not the focus of the abovementioned forerunners. Overall, our analysis illustrates an ecosystem where industry giants and smaller-size players each occupies a niche. Selection and succession are expected to continue for years in this young ecosystem.

Characteristics of anticancer drug studies registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) from 2007 to 2015

OBJECTIVE

This research aims to examine the basic and methodological characteristics of anticancer drug studies registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) and explores the progress of implementation of good clinical practice (GCP) and the challenges it poses for anticancer drug research in China.

METHODS

The studies from 2007 to 2015 were downloaded from the ChiCTR and those involving anticancer drugs with evaluation of the main dimensions. The numerical trend of the studies registered each year was analyzed. Chi-square tests were performed to test for significant differences between different funding sources, types of drug and study phases.

RESULTS

Six hundred and four anticancer drug studies were collected. The overall number of anticancer drug studies was increased. Significant differences could be seen in the dimensions of multicentre study (P = 0.000), participant number (P = 0.029) and randomization procedure (P = 0.005) for the three funding sources. There were significant differences in the dimensions of multicentre study (P = 0.001), participant number (P = 0.025), collecting samples from participants (P = 0.006), and randomization procedure (P = 0.009) between different kinds of drugs. There were also significant differences in the dimension of participant number (P = 0.025) and randomization procedure (P = 0.016) between different study phases.

CONCLUSION

There are problems with study registry criteria and study type classification method. Also, within the studies researched, heterogeneity exists for various dimensions. Different sources of funding, distinct types of drug and disparate phases of study lead to significant differences in certain dimensions of anticancer drug studies.

Research and development of antibiotics: insights from patents and citation network

INTRODUCTION

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics develops at an alarming rate and leads to the increasing morbidity and health-care costs in recent years. However, the global research and development (R&D) of antibiotics has fallen behind the emergence and spread of bacterial resistance and the world is heading towards a 'post-antibiotic era'. In this context, systematic understanding of the technology landscape and evolving process of antibiotic R&D may help to provide insights for discovering future antibiotics more rationally.

AREAS COVERED

Patents and patent citations are broadly believed to be powerful tools in representing the technology advances and capturing technology flows. In all, 707 U.S. patents related to antibiotic R&D are collected and analyzed. Furthermore, patent citations are visualized by a network-based approach, while the inter-relationship between patented technologies on antibiotics is further revealed.

EXPERT OPINION

The current dry pipeline of antibiotic development requires substantial awareness and political support. It is essential to build an attractive and supportive environment for investment. Thus, a new antibiotic business model is needed to chase the balance between the market-oriented investment and public health goals. Additionally, drug development targeting Gram-negative bacteria, especially resistant Gram-negative bacteria, demands attentions from stakeholders because of their unmet medical needs.

IPAT: a freely accessible software tool for analyzing multiple patent documents with inbuilt landscape visualizer

Intelligent Patent Analysis Tool (IPAT) is an online data retrieval tool, operated based on text mining algorithm to extract specific patent information in a predetermined pattern into an Excel sheet. The software is designed and developed to retrieve and analyze technology information from multiple patent documents and generate various patent landscape graphs and charts. The software is C# coded in visual studio 2010, which extracts the publicly available patent information from the web pages like Google Patent and simultaneously study the various technology trends based on user-defined parameters. In other words, IPAT combined with the manual categorization will act as an excellent technology assessment tool in competitive intelligence and due diligence for predicting the future R&D forecast.