Pharma Blog Watch

A Look at Drug Patents (Orange Book Blog)
In his post, Aaron Barkoff discusses a recent study on drug patents. A team of researchers "analyzed drug approval and patent data since 1982 to learn how the pharmaceutical industry uses patents," he writes.

"Their findings include: most approved drugs are protected by very few patents (2.69 patents on average); 'platform technologies' are rare (most patents cover only one approved drug); drug companies are generally self-sufficient (the [new drug application (NDA)] filer owns all of the patents listed for a given NDA 60 percent of the time), but collaboration is still necessary; and certain families of drugs are protected by 'patent thickets.'"