Title page
Contents
Acknowledgements 5
Key findings 6
Introduction 10
Background - biology of COVID-19 11
Overview of patenting activity related to COVID-19 13
Patent filings during 2020-2021 13
Filing and publication of COVID-19-related patent applications over time 14
COVID-19-related vaccine and therapeutic patent applicant profiles 17
Research collaboration and IP strategies related to technologies important to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics 17
Disclosure of sequences within patent documents 18
COVID-19 vaccines 19
Background - vaccine platforms 19
Conventional vaccine platforms 20
Novel vaccine platforms 20
Patent and vaccine distribution by vaccine platform and published applicant location 23
Speed of vaccine development 24
COVID-19 vaccine patent landscape 25
Core vaccine technologies, collaboration and licensing 29
Analysis of WHO data on COVID-19 vaccines 30
Timelines on key technologies for COVID-19 vaccine development 32
Technologies relevant to mRNA vaccine 32
Timeline details for adenovirus vaccine development 34
Timeline details for vaccine adjuvant development 35
COVID-19 therapeutics 37
Background 37
Analysis of COVID-19 therapeutics-related patent applications by substances type 38
Top locations of patent applicants for COVID-19 therapeutics and their filing strategies 39
Highlights of patent filings related to COVID-19 therapeutic development 43
Patent filings related to development of small-molecule drugs for COVID-19 43
Patent filings related to the development of biologics for COVID-19 44
Patents related to antibodies for COVID-19 treatment 44
Peptide and protein therapies 44
Nucleic-acid-based therapies 45
Aptamer-mediated therapy 46
Cell-based therapies 46
Other biologic-based therapies 46
Analysis of COVID-19 therapeutics in clinical trials 47
Analysis of COVID-19 therapeutics data in the Milken Institute and Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) tracker data 47
Distribution of COVID-19 drug candidates across small molecules and biologics, repurposed drugs and de novo synthesized drugs 48
Classification of COVID-19 drug candidates in clinical trials by molecular nature and function 48
Feature summary of examples of anti-COVID-19 drug candidates in clinical trials 49
Perspectives 52
Annex 55
Data sources and methods 55
Tables of vaccine types and candidates currently in clinical trials 57
Examples of partial, early disclosure observed at the Israeli, U.K. and Singapore patent offices 68
Glossary 70
References 73
Further reading 82
Table 1. Number of patent applications related to COVID-19 in general, COVID-19 therapeutics and COVID-19 vaccines, first filed and published in 2020-2021... 13
Table 2a. Patent filing to publication time (months) for COVID-19-related applications compared to all chemistry/bioscience applications in top patent offices of... 15
Table 2b. Patent filing to grant time (months) for COVID-19-related patents compared to all chemistry/bioscience patents observed in top patent offices of filing... 16
Table 3. Contribution of different patent applicant profiles to COVID-19-related vaccine and therapeutic datasets from January 2020 to September 2021 17
Table 4. Categories of COVID-19 vaccine platforms 22
Table 5. Distribution of COVID-19-related patent filings from January 2020 to September 2021 among vaccine platforms by top patent applicant locations 24
Table 6. Top patent offices by number of COVID-19 vaccine-related patent applications filed for patent protection from January 2020 to September 2021 25
Table 7. Top applicant locations for patent filings related to COVID-19 vaccine development filed for patent protection from January 2020 to September 2021 25
Table 8a. Examples of COVID-19 vaccines patent applicants (companies, universities and research organizations) based in Europe and the Russian Federation... 27
Table 8b. Examples of COVID-19 vaccine patent applicants (companies and universities and research organizations) based in the U.S. selected by number of filings... 28
Table 8c. Examples COVID-19 vaccine patent applicants (companies and universities and research organizations) in Asia selected by number of patent filings... 29
Table 9. Distribution of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical trials among various platforms by country 31
Table 10. Timeline of mRNA technology and vaccine development 33
Table 11. Timeline of lipid nanoparticle development 33
Table 12. Timeline of adenovirus-based vaccine development 35
Table 13. Timeline of adjuvant development 36
Table 14. Categories of COVID-19 therapeutics 38
Table 15. Top patent offices of filing and applicant locations by number of COVID-19 therapeutics-related patent filings 39
Table 16a. Examples of COVID-19 therapeutics patent applicants (companies, universities and research organizations) based in Europe and the Russian Federation... 41
Table 16b. Examples of COVID-19 therapeutics patent applicants (companies, universities and research organizations) based in the U.S. selected by number of filings... 42
Table 16c. Examples of COVID-19 therapeutics patent applicants (companies, universities and research organizations) based in Asia selected by number of filings... 43
Table 17. Example of small-molecule and biologic anti-COVID-19 drugs and drug combinations in clinical trials and related patent documents 49
Figure 1. The genomic landscape of SARS-CoV-2 12
Figure 2. Patent applications related to COVID-19, first filed and published from January 2020 through September 2021 by patent filing and publication month 14
Figure 3. Patent applications related to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, first filed from January 2020 through September 2021 14
Figure 4. Vaccine platforms and the ways they produce immunogens in cells 19
Figure 5. Distribution of COVID-19-related patent filings among vaccine platforms 23
Figure 6. Timelines for the development of vaccines for Ebola virus and three beta-coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) 24
Figure 7. Flow of patent filings related to COVID-19 vaccines from different applicant locations (left) to various patent offices of filing (right) 26
Figure 8. Top 19 locations based on number of COVID-19 vaccines in the development pipeline 30
Figure 9. Landscape of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical trials among various vaccine platforms 31
Figure 10. Mechanism of action of mRNA-mediated vaccination 34
Figure 11. Illustration of the COVID-19 drug targets 38
Figure 12. Distribution of patent applications relating to COVID-19 therapeutics among different categories and subcategories of therapeutics 39
Figure 13. Flow of patent filings in the field of COVID-19 therapeutics from different applicant locations (left) to various jurisdictions (right) 40
Figure 14. Distribution of COVID-19 drug candidates between the clinical trial stage and preclinical stage and cooperation during this development stage 47
Figure 15. Distribution of COVID-19 drug candidates in the categories of small molecules and biologics 48
Figure 16. Classification of small-molecule COVID-19 drugs in clinical trials by function 49
Annex Tables
Table A1. Live attenuated and inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical trials, based on WHO data 57
Table A2. Protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical trials, based on WHO data 58
Table A3. Viral-vector- and bacterial-vector-based COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials, based on WHO data 61
Table A4. Nucleic-acid-based COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials, based on WHO data 62
Table A5. Example patents related to small-molecule candidates, including natural products, for treating COVID-19 63
Table A6. Example patents related to development of biologics for treating COVID-19 65
Table A7. Examples of unpublished Israeli patent applications 68
Table A8. Examples of patent applications in the Singapore patent register with pending, abandoned or withdrawn status 68
Table A9. A selection of patent applications filed and notified to UKIPO 69