This chapter consists of five sections. The first part analyzes the macro
policies of Chinese anti-cancer drugs, sorts the existing policies and regulations in
China and clarifies the main departments of Chinese domestic drug regulation.
The second part is the analysis of Chinese domestic anti-cancer drug patents. Based on
the domestic Chinese invention patents as the data source, this section analyzes
Chinese domestic anti-cancer drug patents, major competitive countries and regions,
developmental characteristics of patented technology, and the main applicants. It can
be found that Chinese local patent applications have increased yearly since China
began to protect drug patents in 1992. Up to the retrieval date, there is a total of 57,280
pieces of invention patents in China. Patent applications of China, the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain occupy the top 5 positions. Among them China has the
most patent applications. However, high-level patents are few The patent applications
of the United States rank second, but the patent quality is considerably ahead, with
rapid development in the Chinese patent markets. In addition to the focus and hotspots
of patent applications of China, the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain also are
analyzed in this part. Bode Gene Dev. Co., Ltd. Shanghai, Roche Holding Ltd., Merck
& Co., Ltd., Pfizer Inc., Novartis AG are the top 5 patentees in terms of patent
applications, with differences in development in the Chinese market, technical focus
and hotspots.
The third part is the analysis of patent applications in foreign countries by Chinese
applicants. Up to the retrieval date, Chinese applicants have a total of 4,036 invention
patents in foreign countries. Since China's accession to the WTO, the amount of patent
applications through the WIPO and EPO has increased rapidly. The United States is the
most popular country for Chinese inventors. From the view of technical fields, patent
applications in the field of A61K 31/00 (pharmaceutical preparations containing
organic components) are the highest, up to 645 pieces. The top 10 of the International
Patent Classification (IPC) accounts for 45% of the total applications. From the view of
applicants, Roche Holding Ltd. is the most powerful company, occupying the leading
position through their technical strength and number of patents. The patent applications
of Medipharma SA are far ahead, but are relatively weak in strength. There is a large
gap between these two companies and the other companies both in strength and the
number of patents.
The fourth part is a case study. According to the statistics of GLOBOCAN, new liver
cancer cases in China accounted for about 50% of cases (up to 782,000) in 2012. Based
on the analysis of Chinese local anti-cancer drugs, the attention of Chinese inventors
concerning liver cancer has increased in recent years. From the perspective of Chinese
domestic patents, China's patent applications account for 74.6% of total applications,
however important patents and core patents account for only 2%. The number of top 10
IPC patent applications is 2,430, accounting for 43% of the total. From the perspective
of applicants, the applications of Fudan University and the Chinese Academy of
Sciences are the highest, at 80 pieces each. The technical strength of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences is the highest, while GlaxoSmithKline plc. is relatively weak.
From the perspective of Chinese applicants in foreign countries, Chinese inventors
contributed 738 pieces of patents for liver cancer drugs from 1985 to 2015. The United
States, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia are the main countries where Chinese
inventors apply for patents. The five countries account for 67.8% of the total patent
applications. The patent applications of the top 10 IPCs is up to 371, accounting for
50.3% of the total. Among them, A61K 31/00 (pharmaceutical preparations containing
effective organic components) is the key IPC. Hangzhou Bensheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has applied for 34 pieces of patents, located at the right end of the horizontal
axis, indicating the patentee’s powerful technology.
Keywords: Anti-cancer drugs, bubble analysis, Chinese applicants, competitor
analysis, competitive countries, China market, design, IPC distribution, liver
cancer, patent analysis, policies analysis, patent application analysis, patent
application, patent for invention, patent strength, technical fields, text clustering,
utility model.
