Building a View of the Future of Antibiotics Through the Analysis of Primary Patents

Abstract

The primary patent application of a new drug is the application that claims the chemical structure of that new compound and is usually the first patent filled regarding that new drug. Therefore, the analysis of the recent primary patents in a therapeutic group reflects the results of the research toward finding new compounds and allows building a view of the future of that therapeutic class. The identification of the primary patents is challenging and requires data treatment, visualization, and analysis tools. In order to address this matter, this paper presents a method for gathering and analyzing the primary patent applications for new antibiotics using the VantagePoint software. This therapeutic class was chosen due to the continuous rise of resistant bacteria, the critical need for new antibiotics that, combined with the lack new drugs in the market, leads to an urgent need for public and private policies to improve research in the field. The method resulted in 1333 primary patent applications of new antibiotics that were analyzed regarding the discovery strategy, the chemical classes, and mechanisms of action and according to the bacteria for which they are active. This analysis was made using different VantagePoint resources and allowed view of the new compounds that might reach the market in the future.