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

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Intensified disease management; Mass drug administration; Neglected tropical diseases; Patents; Preventive chemotherapy.

Fig. 1

Patenting trend by number of granted patent families and the total patent families. The overall filing trend in the last 30 years for NTDs reveals an increasing trend between 1985 and 2014. Following the intense growing period between 1985 and 2008, there is no steady increase in the number of total patent families, but there is a slow but continous growth in the number of granted patent families. Patent applications are not published until after 18 months, this explains why no data is presented after 2014

Fig. 2

Current legal status of patent families of NTDs. Almost 50% of the patents are not active. Record numbers refer to the number of patent families

Fig. 3

Number of granted patent families (a) and the total patent families (b) for the top five priority countries, by years. a: Main countries with source of inventions are the United States and the European Union-European Patent Office. Record numbers refer to the number of granted patent families. Priority countries are: US (United States), EP (European Union-European Patent Office), KR (Korea), JP (Japan), GB (Great Britain). b: Main countries with source of inventions are the United States and China. Record numbers refer to the number of patent families. Priority countries are: US (United States), CN (China), JP (Japan), EP (European Union-European Patent Office), GB (Great Britain)

Fig. 4

Number of granted patent families (a) and the total patent families (b) for the top ten priority countries by types of assignee. a: Firm (firms), indiv (individuals), univ. (universities), inst (non-profit institutions), govt (governments) and hosp (hospitals) are assignee types. “Others” classify the assignee names or company names which do not fall under these categories (university, government, non-profit institution, hospital, individuals). Record numbers referring to the number of granted patent families. Priority countries are: US (United States), EP (European Union-European Patent Office), KR (Korea), JP (Japan), GB (Great Britain), RU (Russia), CN (China), FR (France), AU (Australia), IN (India). b: Firm (firms), indiv (individuals), univ. (universities), inst (non-profit institutions), govt (governments) and hosp (hospitals) are assignee types. “Others” classify all the assignee names or company names which do not fall under these categories (university, government, non-profit institution, hospital, individuals). Record numbers refer to the number of patent families. Priority countries are: US (United States), CN (China), JP (Japan), EP (European Union-European Patent Office), GB (Great Britain), FR (France), KR (Korea), DE (Germany), AU (Australia), RU (Russia)

Fig. 5

Number of granted patent families (a) and the total patent families (b) for the technological subdomains over time. a: The main technological subdomains are pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, organic fine chemistry, analysis of biological materials, basic materials chemistry and medical technology. Contininous growth can be observed especially in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, organic fine chemistry. Record numbers refer to the number of granted patent families. b: The main technological subdomains are pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, organic fine chemistry, analysis of biological materials, basic materials chemistry and medical technology. Contininous growth can be observed especially in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, organic fine chemistry between 1985 and 2011 followed by stagnations/slight decline. Record numbers referring to the number of patent families

Fig. 6

Original and current patent assignees. For patent families of all NTDs, University of California and US Health are the major original assignees, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Merck Sharp Incorporation are the main current assigness. Record numbers refer to the number of patent families