Which biopharma company was granted the most pharma patents last year? Pharmalot asked IFI Patent Intelligence the question and came up with Bristol-Myers Squibb, with 82. Wyeth, Pfizer, Hoffman LaRoche, Merck, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly followed in due order of innovation. These are all class 514 patents approvals, as distinct from filings. As Pharmalot points out, there is always a hefty backlog of patent filings. Interestingly, Sanofi-Aventis, which has been hammered by the analysts for its thin pipeline, came out near the bottom of the list, behind the University of California. Tech companies put the biopharma industry to shame though. IBM alone filed 3,148 patents last year.
- read the report from Pharmalot