The Patent Portfolio Research Of Coronavirus Vaccine Technology

Under the background of the current global COVID-19 epidemic,the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine carries the expectation of all sectors of society.Due to COVID-19 and previous coronaviruses all belong to the genus Coronavirus,the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines are highly correlated with previous academical studies on other coronavirus vaccines,and the operation of patents about COVID-19 vaccines cannot be separated from other patents related to coronavirus vaccines.Therefore,for the aim of pointing out the way forward for the newly developed scientific research achievements of Chinese scientific research institutions and helping enterprises interested in entering this field to draw up targeted strategic arrangements,more attention should be paid to the patent portfolio and analysis in the technical field of coronavirus vaccine.Based on the analysis of 2334 documents related to human coronavirus vaccine obtained from medical database Pubmed,it is found that coronavirus vaccine technology has experienced three stages: pioneering stage,budding stage,and explosive stage,and their time ranges are respectively 1994-2002,2003-2019 and 2020 till now.The researches in the field mainly focus on the pathogenic mechanism of COVID-19 and the assumption of vaccine development route.The important researchers in the field are Shibo Jiang,Lanying Du,Stanley Perlman,Yusen Zhou,etc.;the main research institutions are scientific research institutions and universities in China and the United States,such as NIAID,Fudan University,Chinese Academy of Sciences,New York Blood Center and so on.Based on the analysis of 356 patents related to human coronavirus vaccine obtained by processing query formulation in the Pat Snap Patent Retrieval system,it was found that the number of annual patent applications for coronavirus vaccine technology peaked during the SARS virus epidemic in 2003,and then decreased rapidly until it entered a steady-state,but a new peak is expected to come in recent years.The applicants are mainly Chinese scientific research institutions and companies,but the number of applications from each applicant is small.In terms of regional distribution of patent applications,China and the United States have absolute advantages over other countries in the world.The analysis of the research hotspots of patent samples shows that the research directions of innovation subjects in the field of coronavirus vaccine are diversified: there are achievements in various technical routes,and important innovation subjects in our country have the leading advantage in the route of inactivated vaccine,and the important innovation subjects of foreign countries lead the technical routes of m RNA vaccine and virus vector vaccine.Based on the citation analysis of patent samples,it is found that China has not mastered the core technology in the field of coronavirus vaccine,and the value of Chinese patents is also far from that of foreign rights holders.More deeply,patent portfolio analysis was carried out among the important foreign innovation subjects in the field of coronavirus vaccine,including Modernatx,New York Blood Center,Pasteur Institute,and important innovation subjects in China,including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,SINOVAC Biotech,and Tsinghua University.After comparison,it is found that there is a big gap between Chinese and foreign important innovation subjects in the total number of patent applications,the number of high-quality patents and the number of cross-regional patent applications.Besides,the comparison also reveals some weaknesses of our domestic innovation subjects,such as lacking core technology,barely paying attention to the patents portfolio overseas,and so on.At present,in the field of coronavirus vaccine,each competitor in "COVID-19 vaccine competition" merely holds a small number of relative patents,and most of the high-value patents are scattered in the hands of many right holders who have not yet joined the competition.All competitors are faced with intellectual property issues.To help China’s domestic COVID-19 vaccine gain advantages in the global competition,and promote the development of China’s vaccine industry and epidemic prevention and control capabilities,it is suggested that the following countermeasures be taken: on the one hand,the state should provide better guarantee for the patent portfolio of the vaccine industry,specifically by continuing to strengthen the policy support,promoting the merger and reorganization of vaccine enterprises,and implementing the supporting policies of the pharmaceutical patent term extension system and the pharmaceutical patent linkage system as soon as possible;on the other hand,relevant innovative subjects in the field of coronavirus vaccine should also carefully plan the patent portfolio overseas to enhance their market competitiveness,and take measures such as strengthening scientific research cooperation,developing high-value invalid patents in the technical field of coronavirus vaccine,and so on.