Pharmaceutical patent landscaping: A novel approach to understand patents from the drug discovery perspective

Abstract

Patents play a crucial role in the drug discovery process by providing legal protection for discoveries and incentivising investments in research and development. By identifying patterns within patent data resources, researchers can gain insight into the market trends and priorities of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, as well as providing additional perspectives on more fundamental aspects such as the emergence of potential new drug targets. In this paper, we used the patent enrichment tool, PEMT, to extract, integrate, and analyse patent literature for rare diseases (RD) and Alzheimers disease (AD). This is followed by a systematic review of the underlying patent landscape to decipher trends and applications in patent for these diseases. To do so, we discuss prominent organisations involved in drug discovery research in AD and RD. This allows us to gain an understanding of the importance of AD and RD from specific organisational (pharmaceutical or university) perspectives. Next, we analyse the historical focus of patents in relation to individual therapeutic targets and correlate them with market scenarios allowing the identification of prominent targets for a disease. Lastly, we identified drug repurposing activities within the two diseases with the help of patents. This resulted in identifying existing repurposed drugs and novel potential therapeutic approaches applicable to the indication areas. The study demonstrates the expanded applicability of patent documents from legal to drug discovery, design, and research, thus, providing a valuable resource for future drug discovery efforts.

Exploring SureChEMBL from a drug discovery perspective

“…The data used in this study can be accessed on Zenodo 71 . The "Figures" directory consists of all the figures shown in this study.…”

“…Pharmaceutical-based patenting activity, which mainly covers claims related to therapeutic design, synthesis, and formulation, among others claims, reveals critical information pertaining to the development and prescription of drugs and biologics. In doing so, it serves as a valuable resource for understanding the landscape and dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry [5][6][7][8][9] . Pharmaceutical patent documents cover two fundamental components: the compound itself and its application 10,11 .…”