Company Profile Sankyo: analysis of patenting 1993 – 1996

Abstract

Sankyo, Japan's second largest pharmaceutical company, has an extremely varied patent portfolio, rich in natural products and tending to be concentrated in therapeutic fields in which the Company has no current products. Joint patenting within Japan is significant, but partners are exclusively industrial; joint ventures and agreements exist with several multinationals. Licensed-in products dominate Sankyo's clinical development phases, but a strong preclinical pipeline and a recent sharp upturn in patenting suggest that this may change. Only a third of Sankyo's patenting is international, and even that has relatively narrow territorial coverage.