Abraham Lincoln had said “The patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius”. The increasing use of patents to protect inventions by large, small and medium enterprises, research organizations have created new waves of innovation in almost every industry, notably in information and communication industry.

In contrast to patents in other industries, pharmaceutical patents cover products that take a very long time to build up. It takes 10–15 years on an average in pharmaceutical industry to develop a new medicine from the initial stages of compound discovery through various approvals to product. As a result, a significant portion of the patent term for a new drug is lost before a product enters the market. In fact, the average effective patent life for medicines is 10-13 years.

Patent in pharmaceutical sector are generally obtained to prevent others from using the patented pharmaceutical composition or the patented drug/pharmaceutical manufacturing process. Also as different industries have different motto of patenting such as in electronic technology patents are obtained specifically for cross-licensing. Also pharmaceutical patenting in India has survived, shaped and thrived a lot after the introduction of a new pharma product patent regime in 2005.

The report focuses on pharmaceutical patenting activities in India for the period  January 1, 2011 to  September 25, 2013. The report highlights:

• Top pharmaceuticals firms activities in India
• Study of the type of patent awarded to the top pharmaceutical firms

Role of Indian government agencies into pharmaceutical patenting  in India

Search history and coverage
The search started with identification of IPC codes related to pharmaceutical sector from WIPO (IPC-CAT). A comprehensive search was carried out using the identified IPC codes for the duration  January 1, 2011 up to  September 25, 2013 to identify patent documents granted in the pharmaceutical sector in India using Total Patents (Lexis Nexis).

The data obtained using the above approach was analyzed to pull out top 20 firms, government agencies and inventors active in the field of pharmaceutical patenting in India and the type of patent granted to the top 20 firms.

A. IPC classification codes
The International Patent Classification (IPC), established by the Strasbourg Agreement 1971, provides a hierarchical system of language independent symbols for the classification of patents and utility models according to the different areas of technology to which they pertain. Thus the learning of IPC Codes points toward the specific type of patents and help to identify the technology.

Following are the IPC classification codes found for pharmaceutical technology domain.

Theses classification codes were further used to identify patent documents granted in the field of pharmaceutical for the period January 1, 2011 up to  September 25, 2013 in India using Total Patent.

B. Research analysis
The patent documents obtained from the above method were analyzed thoroughly to derive:

• Top pharmaceuticals firms patenting activities in India
• Study of the type of patent awarded to the top pharmaceutical firms

Role of Indian government agencies and inventors into pharmaceutical patenting  in India

Top pharma firms patenting activities in India
Foreign multinational pharma companies lead the patenting activities in IPO

An analysis of the patent granted to pharmaceutical firm’s by Indian Patent Office (IPO) for period 1/1/2011 to 25/9/2013 revealed that, foreign MNC’s are keen in patenting their inventions at IPO with F. Hoffamann-La Roche AG leading the patent portfolio during period of study followed by Sanofi-Aventis.

Indian origin MNC, DR.Reddy’s Lab occupies the third position.

Role of Indian government agencies in pharma patenting

CSIR rocks!
The activities of government agencies in pharmaceutical sector for the period of 1/1/2011 to 25/9/2013 revealed that CSIR is the key government agency accounting about 26 per cent of total patents granted to government agencies. CSIR is followed by BASF SE, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Even though NIPER is the core government institute for pharmaceutical research, NIPER has got just nine patent documents for the period 1/1/2011 to 25/9/2013 which is about six per cent of total patents granted to the government agencies.

Type of patent awarded to the top pharma firms
Pharmaceutical patents are broadly classified into two types’ product patent and process patent

Product patent: Product patent relates to a novel drug claimed either by chemical name or by chemical structure or both.

Process patent: This type of patent claim ‘claims’ a chemical or other process used to manufacture the drug whenever the drug is made by the patented process.  

India-based multinational pharma companies tops  product patenting activities!

Among the top 20 pharmaceutical firms, Hindustan Unilever has the highest number of product patents in the pharmaceutical sector; DR.Reddy’s Lab occupies the second position followed by Sanofi-Aventis and Roche. The other India-based pharmaceutical companies Cipla and Wockhardt follow Roche.

Roche holds the highest number of process patents followed by Sanofi and Dr.Reddy’s Lab. Among the other India - based MNC Enaltec, Emcure, Hindustan Unilever, Wockhardt and Hetero also shows some significant patenting activities related to process patents.

Novartis holds the highest number of patent documents for both process and product followed by Enaltec, Glaxo and Roche.

Conclusion
The study carried out for pharmaceutical patenting activity by firms and various government agencies in India revealed the following;

Despite of product patent regimen post 2005 most firms are applying for process patents at Indian Patent Office (IPO). Also the Indian based MNC’s are showing interest in the product patenting mostly with a balance for process patents also.

Patenting activity at IPO is headed by foreign MNC’s and Indian MNC’s are in the contest of patenting with them.

CSIR a Government Agency (Indian) is leading into patenting for pharmaceuticals at IPO followed by the BASF, ICAR, and NIPER.