Introduction

A patent is a type of intellectual property right that provides protection over any novel invention and also, gives the exclusive right to sell, use, create and/or manufacture the patented product.

As new and improved drugs are being introduced every year in the market, drug or pharmaceutical patents have become particularly important as these drugs helps to generate a significant amount of revenue for their commercial benefits. The pharmaceutical sector is an area in which innovation impacts the bottom line of the drug manufacturers who focus on research and development of a new drug and incur huge costs in doing so, where there is neither a guarantee nor an assurance that their research product shall survive various testing stages and will commercially thrive if released in the market.

Importance of innovation in the drug industry

  • Innovation in the Drug Patent is a key element that defines the success of a drug manufacturer.
  • Innovation provides high returns on investment. While developing and launching a new drug involves huge costs, the rate of return on successful drugs can be much higher than the costs associated with introducing the drug to the market.
  • While it can increase the risk involved when developing drugs, the benefits drastically outweigh the risk as innovation allows higher profitability and better profit margins.
  • Innovation is important for these companies because more and more money is spent on marketing and research of potential drugs. If these drugs don't make it to market, then time and money spent are lost. Therefore, innovative approaches must be taken to determine how such pharma companies can make a return on their investment without losing too much money.
  • While the cost of bringing a new drug to market can be high, drug companies can actually increase profits by marketing current drugs to enhance the success of those drugs that they are currently manufacturing, and are on the market.

Importance of Drug Patent

Patents contribute to roughly 80% of the overall revenue of pharmaceutical companies and obtaining patent protection is important to safeguard the innovative approaches used by pharma companies. Drug patents help recoup investments that are incurred during the research and development stage. Also, drug patents can secure against infringement cases, as competitors can easily duplicate the manufacturing of a drug.  Drug patents help raise venture capital, which thus, improves the overall economic growth of companies operating in this industry.

Requirements for Patent Protection

However, not all drugs can be patented, and thus not all inventions can be patented. There are certain criteria that must be met in order to be able to apply for patent protection and these include – the invention must be non-obvious, must be new and must be useful.

An invention is non-obvious if when comparing the invention to other previously patented inventions, it doesn't provide the same type of support or disclose the same type of information as in other inventions. This specific criterion is one of the most important items when considering patentability of an invention. It also helps to identify what type of competition would be out there for such an invention.

The invention must be new, and not already in existence. This includes any inventions that were previously patented, whether the invention is identical or very similar in nature. It is also important to keep in mind that if the invention is being used, you may run into a problem. If that invention is being used but has no patent protection, it still has common law protection. But, if you submit your patent application for the same invention, you may be successful in obtaining patent protection, as the other inventor should have patented his or her invention to obtain full protection rights over the invention.

Lastly, the invention must be useful, meaning that it must have a purpose. This is probably the most easily understandable factor, as the invention must have a use, whether it be to assist in some sort of problem or benefit the user in some way.

Conclusion

Patents are originally intended to encourage innovators and maximize the greater good and if we want to help people and make healthcare more affordable, we need an even more rapid process for approval of generics. It is very important for branded pharma companies to obtain patent protection for their products in order to garner the investments. Therefore, it is important that patents are a fundamental incentive to innovative activities in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industry, hence it need to be safeguarded.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.