Pharmaceutical experts racing to find cure helped by cooperation among IP agencies
Instead of New Year greetings, a phone call Li Gaoxia received on the first day of the first lunar month of 2020 was about a patent for an antiviral compound.
Li, head of Chengdu-based Gaoyung Intellectual Property Agency, immediately launched a patent search after she hung up to prepare advice. The inquirer was a medical researcher who works at a hospital, China Intellectual Property News reported.
"There has been a surge in the number of inquiries related to the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak," Li told the Beijing-based newspaper. "Calls are coming in almost every day."
There has been a surge in the number of inquiries related to the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak
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She is among the IP experts specializing in the pharmaceutical industry assembled by the IP service promotion center of Sichuan province. They offer patent analytics services for free to small and medium-sized enterprises combating the epidemic.
IP practitioners, agencies and regulators across China are taking swift action as the entire nation rallies in the fight against the disease.
An online patent database designed for the outbreak was launched on Feb 7 by the China Patent Information Center and the Patent Examination Cooperation (Beijing) Center of the Patent Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration.
The database contains both Chinese and international patent documents, which have been selected by nearly 60 patent examiners and sorted by their relevance and significance. They are divided into nine categories including treatment, prevention, detection, medical equipment, protective gear, disinfection, waste treatment, and big data and artificial intelligence applications.
The database received more than 10,000 visits in the first 12 hours of launching, according to China Intellectual Property News.
Quite a few research institutes and universities, such as Tongji University in Shanghai, have provided user feedback over the phone and sought further collaboration in patent information with the database.
Jiangsu and Shaanxi provinces, among other regions, launched their online patent search tool on Feb 11.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, patent information "is the largest, well-classified and most up-to-date collection of technical documents on new and innovative technologies".
"Patent information is a treasure trove for researchers who are racing to find a cure," Xu Jian, director of the China Patent Information Center, was quoted as saying by China Intellectual Property News.
By consulting patent literature, he noted, research institutes and tech companies will be able to assess the state of the art, determine the best course of treatment, reduce research and development costs and avoid infringing any patents.
The most valuable technology intelligence is stored in patent literature, an official at Questel China told China Intellectual Property News. Paris-headquartered IP solutions provider Questel has released a report containing patent data surrounding the novel coronavirus and possible treatments "in the hope that it will help speed up the drug-screening process".
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"The important progress being made in the field of biopharmaceuticals worldwide, including drugs currently undergoing clinical trials, is found in patent documents," the official said.
Wang Yali, director of the Jiangsu Patent Information Service Center, told China Intellectual Property News that in addition to creating a patent search tool, the center will send relevant patent information to local drug producers and gene companies, and help them partner up with key research teams.
The center is doing this to help the companies "raise efficiency, avoid investing R&D resources in developing something that already exists and promote international cooperation", Wang said.
Some patent information service providers are also offering medical workers the passwords to their patent collections free of charge to help with their research, China Intellectual Property News reported
