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Patents

Distinguishing and predicting drug patents

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 317–321 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Drug patents are different. To improve their quality ex ante, regulators can use predictive models.

Drug patents provide crucial incentives for developing life-saving medicines, but when improperly granted, they can contribute to delays in competition and limit access. Although the maximum term of a patent is 20 years, drugmakers routinely seek and obtain longer periods of protection over drug innovations by filing for ‘secondary’ or follow-on patents that cover alternative formulations, doses, uses and combinations of drugs1. In addition, drugmakers can file for ‘continuation’ patents to increase the density of patent protection. Lawmakers have increasingly expressed concerns about the contribution of weak secondary patents to ‘thickets’ of patents covering a certain drug, each of which poses an impediment to generic competition2.

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Fig. 1: Distinguishing and predictive traits of drug patent applications.
Fig. 2: Visualization of our results.

References

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Acknowledgements

For C.C., any opinions, to the extent reflected herein, are her own and do not represent those of the Patent Office, where she serves as a part-time expert advisor and Edison Fellow. For N.H., any opinions, to the extent reflected herein, are his own and do not represent those of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. For J.K., any opinions, to the extent reflected herein, are his own and do not represent those of Polygon IP. The authors thank Bhaven Sampat and Arti Rai for their comments on previous drafts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara, California, USA

    Colleen V. Chien

  2. Formerly of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, San Francisco, California, USA

    Nicholas Halkowski

  3. Polygon IP, Menlo Park, California, USA

    Jeffrey Kuhn

Authors
  1. Colleen V. Chien
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  2. Nicholas Halkowski
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  3. Jeffrey Kuhn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colleen V. Chien.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Discussion and Figs. 1–5

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Chien, C.V., Halkowski, N. & Kuhn, J. Distinguishing and predicting drug patents. Nat Biotechnol 41, 317–321 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01703-0

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