Trends and impact of genome mining patents on target discovery

Abstract

Background: The advent of genome sequencing has brought about an explosion in the content of sequence databases. To date, more than 70 mammalian genomes are or will be available. In the pharmaceutical context, this important advancement opens up the patent and novel target space considerably. Objective: This review summarizes the growth of the patent space in the sequence domain and its impact on drug discovery in terms of targets for which compounds have reached the clinic. Methods: We examined the number and nature of sequences in patent applications and the types of organizations filing the patents from 1995 to 2007. We further quantified the impact on drug discovery by assessing which compounds working on genome targets are in trials run by pharmaceutical companies which also own intellectual property on the targets. Results/conclusions: While the peak activity of genome sequence mining and patent filing was in the early 2000s, very few drug discovery programs have been the direct results of that activity. It is possible that more time is needed for these targets to move through the drug discovery and development cycle.

Keywords::

• drug targets
• genome data mining
• intellectual property
• sequence