| Peter Steele of Thomson plots the route to the fuel that is firing the growth in drug discovery technologies, and explains how to keep the supply protected
Blockbuster drugs tend to grab headlines but, arguably, it is the technologies used to identify these high-revenue pharmaceuticals that are more important in the long term. During the 1970s, innovation in the pharmaceutical field averaged around 3.5 per cent of all innovation, as measured by the subject breakdown of patent specifications published across all technologies and all major countries – steady growth since then has brought the current level to around seven per cent. It is interesting to consider what has caused this growth and what the effects have been on the industry.
INTERNATIONAL PATENTING – THE PCT ROUTE
Adoption of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) by the drug industry is perhaps the single most important factor in the growth we have observed over the past decade. Strictly speaking, it is almost 30 years since the PCT came into effect, but the drug industry, more so than most others, was very slow to begin using it on a large scale. In Table 1, we see year-on-year growth in the use of the PCT generally. Quite understandably, drug companies were at first not prepared to risk using this new, untried route when seeking protection for their latest inventions, which they naturally hoped would turn out to be blockbusters.
However, use of the PCT system grew with familiarity, helped by a change in the early 1990s where the decision as to whether to pursue a particular patent application could be delayed by up to 30 months from its original filing date. This ‘thinking time’ was critical for drug companies as they undertook preclinical testing of their most promising candidates. |
