On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. As a result, both domestic and international research and development (R&D) efforts regarding related diagnosis and treatment methods are in full swing. To promote and protect the results of this R&D, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has verified the Taiwanese patent database by comparing it with the COVID-19-related clinical trials currently registered in the US clinical trial database.

Further, on 13 March 2020 TIPO released current Taiwanese patent information regarding COVID-19-related clinical trial drugs for public reference. According to the announcement, this information covers:

  • drugs which are not registered before TIPO, including small molecule drugs (eg, umifenovir, oseltamivir, ribavirin, chloroquine phosphate, hydroxychloroquine and thalidomide) and therapeutic proteins (eg, recombinant human interferon α-2b, pegylated interferon α-2b, recombinant human interferon β-1β, eculizumab, mepolizumab, thymosin and rhACE2);
  • drugs which are registered for Taiwanese patents whose claims involve specific salts, related compound preparation or applications or preparation methods of active ingredients (chemical compounds or antibody molecules), including small molecule drugs (eg, lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir and fingolimod) and therapeutic proteins (eg, bevacizumab); and
  • drugs which are registered for Taiwanese patents whose claims contain core patents of major active ingredients (chemical compounds or antibody molecules), including small molecule drugs (eg, remdesivir, ASC09F or ASC09/ritonavir, darunavir/cobicistat and danoprevir) and therapeutic proteins (eg, novaferon and anti-PD-1 antibody).(1)

Making the above information public will benefit pharmaceutical companies and help with patent planning for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment method R&D. It will also help to avoid redundant resource allocation and other wasted resources. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies and research organisations should pay attention to this development.

Endnotes

(1) Further information is available on the TIPO website.