We have completed a substantial piece of empirical research on the use by multinational pharmaceutical firms of conventional patenting system and emerging linkage regulation regime to protect "high value" pharmaceuticals.
The work is a follow-up study to our paper currently in press with the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, which the journal called "influential and groundbreaking."
The work involved analysis of nearly 100 drugs and 4,000 patents. In addition to patent and linkage data, results were also analyzed within the context of a novel patent type classification scheme developed for this project (chemical, use, etc.) and the WHO therapeutic classification scheme (cardiovascular, antibiotic, etc.).
Update: The manuscript, entitled "Empirical Analysis of Drug Approval-Drug Patenting Linkage for High Value Pharmaceuticals", was published May 17, 2010 by the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property.
