Intelectual Properties Management for Pharmaceuticals Drugs and Food Products

Nurul Ainina (201626099)

Every human being has been equipped by brain for thinking. Thinking is the most valuable thing
embedded in human since through it, many of inventions were discovered to improve the quality of
life. The term of Intellectual Property (IP) then appears to respect the effort of discovering inventions,
art designs, symbols, images, or other creations of human being having commercial value through
protecting it under certain regulation that does not allowed those creations to be exploited during
certain period. Several types of IP, such as patents or copyright and trademark, are familiar found in
our surrounding. Basically, this protection is purposed to continuously improve the research and
development, trigger new ideas and creativity, and foster the innovation progress as the innovators
will achieve financial benefits and people recognition for their inventions. Patents or copyright and
trademark are the examples of IP form.

In the scientific and technology scope, patents become very popular to protect the new discoveries.
Patents is defined as the official registration of innovation under the government authorization
(Terasaki, 2018). The scientists or companies usually registered their inventions immediately to avoid
the similar findings with them. In patents, there is a term called “patent rights” which are a sort of
exclusive right for patenting in a certain period (normally it takes 20 years). Therefore, the validation
of patent is not forever.

The patent application is usually filed by the inventors. However, if the inventors are working in the
private company, the application may be filed by the company itself not by the inventors. This is very
sensitive issue as the patent applicant will also become the owner of the patent (patentee); thus, the
company normally has employment regulation that regulate all the circumstances relating with
employment and the patent application. Apart from that, to get patents right, several procedures
such as filling application and examination process may take time totally for more than 3 years. This
procedure is also included in the patented period. Therefore, to compensate the application and other
registration processes before the patent right being active, additional time after the period of
expiration is usually provided by the authorizing patent institution. When the patent is already
obtained, the products can be marketed exclusively during the period of validation. It is the
opportunity to return innovator’s investment after long period of research and development and also
at the same time get profits for them.

However, mindful consideration is definitely necessary before deciding to apply the patents. Every
products or creations has its own characteristics and some products may be better to not file for
patent rights. It strongly depends on the business strategies that will be applied on the product since
the filing patent application are also have several disadvantages, for example, the invention is
disclosed to the public; possibility of not get the patents itself, while bunch of cost have been paid for
following the procedures; and the complex procedure of filing patents application. Therefore, through
analyzing consciously these advantages and disadvantages, the innovators can decide which is the
better decision for their invention that bring out more benefit for them.

PATENT MANAGEMENT FOR PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS AND FOOD PRODUCT

Management is viewed as the activities to attain the primary goals in efficient and effective way. It
plans, organizes, controls and evaluates a whole step to achieve successful results. In industrial sectors,
management is very essential since it manages the resources and formulates the strategies to obtain
maximum profits. Besides, it also plays important role in minimizing the risks that may arise during
the industrial processes.

In the previous explanation, it is mentioned that by achieving the patent rights, the innovators can
have exclusive market for their product in the certain period. This opportunity should be followed by
performing patent management to avoid unnecessary consumption of cost, such as money, time and
labor. Especially in the pharmaceuticals companies, filing the patent and apply its management are
greatly advised because the formulation to attain a new drug require very long time and process (9 –
17 years). Besides, it is revealed that the development of new drugs also spends high cost production.

The owners of patent should consider several things just after obtaining their patent. As the part of
patent management, the consideration of patent intention, description, benefits, product object,
competitors, protection, third parties and other thing that may affect the company performance
should be analyzed. Then after understanding about that, the owners can formulate and create the
business strategy to maximize the patent assets. to think about their patent intention, such as for
academic research

Here is the example of a new drug’s patent in affecting the profits of Eisai Co. Several years ago, Eisai
Co. released a new drug called Aricept ®as the medicine to cure dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.
In the beginning of their patent until the expired time, the sales of Aricept ® has 30% proportion out
of the total of Eisai Co. profits. However, after the validity periods was over, the other pharmaceuticals
companies tried to develop similar product with Aricept ® and the price went down rapidly. A year
after the expiration, the sales proportion of Aricept ® decreased 12% from the previous percentage.
It shows that patent right in pharmaceutical company has great effect on the sales of a new drugs for
several years. Therefore, the patent allows the companies to recover their money for the next drug
projects during the patent period.

In case of food product, Healthea produced by Kao Co. has many of patents for its product. It is found
at least 17 patents embedded. On the other hand, legend beverage company, Coca cola, is known
never patenting its recipe. This company prefers to hide their secret formulation tightly; thus, it will
never be disclosed to the public. Then now, it can be seen that Coca cola company is succeeded on its
business without patenting the recipe. From both cases, it can be concluded that every company
surely has its own strategy and policy to ensure their sales production good, either within patent or
without it and they certainly have estimated for the risks that may arise during marketing process.
Thus, there is no fix answer which is better between patented or unpatented. Also, patenting product
in case of food products may be more flexible compared to pharmaceuticals drugs.

IMPRESSION OF THE THEME

I selected this theme because it explained well about the basic concept of patent and its application.
I have no background education or experience in pharmacy, yet this basic theme really helped me to
understand and answer my question regarding to the patent regulation in pharmaceutical field. In the
first session, Sensei told about the patent definition and process clearly, then he also explained about
the pro-cons of the patent itself. In the second session, he explained about the importance of patent
application on pharmaceuticals industry and food product. Therefore, I attained global understanding
about patent in the pharmaceutical area.

I am working in the upstream of microalgae harvesting using membrane system. It is using engineering
approach as the basic concept to solve the problem. Although my research does not relate to drug
discovery course, but through this lecture I understand about the application of patent system. This is
very beneficial for me as in the future my research may be patented. My research now is using the
new concept for microalgae concentration which can save the energy and cost. This is the first time
this concept is applied for microalgae concentration. Although my research is funded by the one of
Japan Ministries, the patent can recover the research cost and the funds can be used for the further
research under the supervision of Japan government.