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The patent landscape for a potential COVID-19 treatment

Introduction

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, it continues to pose an unprecedented global challenge in healthcare. Even though several vaccines have been approved, targeted therapies are still required as vaccines do not provide complete protection. Additionally, they have issues related to safety, storage, and efficacy against mutant strains.

In the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers opted for repurposing of drugs approved for other indications or those which exhibited a positive benefit/risk balance in other conditions. This approach, however, failed since none of the repurposed drug molecules showed positive outcomes. Antiviral drug candidates such as Remdesivir or Bamlanivimab/Etesevimab combination, although approved, are clinically restricted in improving the clinical management of mild to moderate patients. Moreover, they do not provide a complete cure.

Even though there has been limited progress, there are expectations for the treatment of COVID-19 infected patients. The therapeutic strategy that is successful in elucidating a positive outcome would likely be a game-changer and would also become the preferred choice, particularly amongst the elderly.

In this case study, we explore and summarise the emerging patent landscape with a focus on therapeutic molecules that are under development for the treatment of COVID-19 infections.

 

Methods

For the patent landscape and to identify molecules under development, we performed the patent search queries using our own LucidSearch search engine and the SureChemBL database. LucidSearch was also used to retrieve COVID-19 related articles and validate the search keywords.

In SureChemBL, the query field was used for performing a simple freestyle text search using the Lucene syntax – THERAPY AND COVID related keywords COVID19 OR COVID-19 OR Corona virus OR Coronavirus.

 

Results

Time-series analysis

As of March 25, 2021, 184 patent families with patents published between July 2020 and March 2021 were retrieved. The time-series analysis indicates that the number of patent publications is closely related to the outbreak of the pandemic with the first patent published in July 2020. Until today, 86 patents have been published in 2021 and the number is expected to grow further (Figure 1).

The trends indicate high interest and desire from the scientific community both within academic institutions as well as industrial organizations in identifying new approaches to halt progression and transmission of the disease.

Figure 1. Time-series analysis of COVID-19 therapeutic patents.

 

Key therapeutic modalities

The analysis indicates an interest in antibodies, peptides, nucleic acid-based therapy, and novel synthetic molecules (Table 1)

 

Table 1. Top organisations and modalities.

Company/Institution

Modality

Aqualung Therapeutics

Anti-NAMPT antibodies
AJK Pharmaceuticals

Antimicrobial peptides

Atea Pharmaceuticals

Purine nucleotide phosphoramidate 

Atriva Therapeutics

RSK inhibitors

Cadila Pharmaceuticals

Sulfoximine derivatives

Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel

RIPK1 inhibitors
Gilead Sciences

2-imino-5-oxo-imidazolidine inhibitors

Junior University

Regulatory Tcells

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Circular strained zymogen

MC Sciences

Etifoxine

ProQR Therapeutics

Antisense oligonucleotides 

Purinomia Biotech

Anti-CD39 antibodies

SDSU Research Foundation

BTK kinase inhibitors

SOFAR Spa

Lactoferrin

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals

Isoxazoline parasiticides

University of California

Agent enhancing Th1 response and/or reduces Th2 response

The Scripps Research Institute

TREM1 inhibitors

The University of Nebraska

Thiazolide derivative

Thirty holdings limited

Nitrite formulation

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding

TFF2 polypeptides

CD154 antibodies 

TYME Inc

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA)

Hong Kong Baptist University

Patentiflorin A analogs

University of Antwerp

Mucin isoforms

 

Summary and Perspectives

 

#COVID19 #pandemic #patents #Remdesivir #Bamlanivimab #Etesevimab #LucidSearch #SureChembl

 

Sources

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-020-00720-9

https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-affected-by-variants/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/health/coronavirus-remdesivir-who.html

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-monoclonal-antibodies-treatment-covid-19-0

https://www.fda.gov/media/145801/download

https://www.lqventures.com/lucidsearch/#gsc.tab=0

https://www.surechembl.org/search/

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