Global patent landscape of programmed cell death 1: implications of the rapid expansion

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Inhibitors of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligands are producing a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. The promising clinical outcomes and a multi-billion dollar market have prompted active research and development and resulted in relentless patent protection. However, the global patent landscape in this field remains unclear.

Areas covered: The patent landscape encompassing global patenting activities and developing trends in the field is discussed based on a data set of 1287 patent families. Patenting activities have expanded rapidly in the past three years. Specific trends in relevant aspects are presented, including patent filing countries, patent ownership, co-patents, technical areas, and technological connections in terms of patent citation relationships.

Expert opinion: Together with patenting momentum in recent years, fragmented ownership and dense technological connections of PD-1-related inventions raise the possibility of a patent thicket. The explosion of patent applications and complex citation relationships could also lead to considerable patent conflicts and disputes on overlapping intellectual property rights, in addition to existing legal uncertainties. Patent applicants in this field are encouraged to be aware of these concerns when developing valid patent strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)
• patent landscape
• patent citation network
• co-patent
• technology flow
• immunotherapy

Article highlights

• The patent landscape encompassing global patenting activities and developing trends in the field is discussed based on a data set of 1287 patent families filed worldwide from 1993 to 2016.

• The boom in PD-1 patenting was unfolded during the highly developing period of PD-1 patenting activities, from 2014 to 2016.

• Several patterns in the growth of PD-1-related inventions, including the scale of organizational assignees, their involvement in co-patenting activities, the main categories of international patent classification (IPC), and technological connections among patents, followed the trend of rapid increases in patenting activities.

• Most of the PD-1 applicants intended to pursue a global strategy for their patent portfolios, and the U.S. was their primary focus.

• The public sector seems much more dynamic in co-patenting activities on PD-1-related inventions than the private sector.

• The patent citation network in this study demonstrates the influential patents in the PD-1 field, which widely derived from public sector and substantially encompassed key drugs in the market or drug candidates in clinical studies.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Ms. Xiaochu Qin and Ms. Ying Tan from Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health for their support on the data collection.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

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Funding

This work was supported by the University of Macau,under the grant [MYRG2015-00145-ICMS-QRCM] and the grant [MYRG2015-00172-ICMS-QRCM], and by Fundo para o Desenvolvimento das Ciências e da Tecnologia under the grant FDCT013-2015-A1.