The pharmaceutical industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by the evolution of new treatment paradigms, and the gravity of unmet needs, as well as the growing importance of technologies such as pharmacogenomics, digital therapeutics, and artificial intelligence. In the last three years alone, there have been over 787,000 patents filed and granted in the pharmaceutical industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Innovation in pharma: gene splicing using nucleases. Buy the report here.
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However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilizing and reaching maturity.
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Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
80+ innovations will shape the pharmaceutical industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the pharmaceutical industry using innovation intensity models built on over 668,000 patents, there are 80+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, engineered multispecific antibodies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and mutant DNA polymerases are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Phenotypic drug screening, antibody-drug conjugates, and polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are drug delivery nanoparticles and antibody encoding polynucleotide libraries, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for the pharmaceutical industry
Gene splicing nucleases is a key innovation area in the pharmaceutical industry
Nucleases play a fundamental role in the field of recombinant DNA technology, or genetic engineering. Nucleases are enzymes that hydrolytically cleave the phosphodiester backbone of DNA. As part of the DNA repair process, nucleases play an important role in DNA replication, nucleotide excision repair, mismatch repair, and double strand break repair. They are engineered to cut specific genomic targets in order to modify the expression of single genes and proteins. These include Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFN), Transcription Activator-like Effector Nucleases (TALEN) and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat nucleases (CRISPR). Gene splicing using nucleases is used to design gene therapeutics for various genetic disorders.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 410+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established pharmaceutical companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of gene-splicing using nucleases.
Key players in gene splicing nucleases – a disruptive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to gene splicing nucleases
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Sangamo Therapeutics | 708 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals | 402 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CRISPR Therapeutics | 396 | Unlock Company Profile |
| E. Merck | 383 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Intellia Therapeutics | 354 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Editas Medicine | 331 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ToolGen | 301 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Caribou Biosciences | 287 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Inscripta | 263 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Cellectis | 248 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Massachusetts General Hospital | 226 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Beam Therapeutics | 211 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Precision Biosciences | 182 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Corteva | 177 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Factor Bioscience | 153 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals | 147 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Verneuil Participations | 138 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Arbor Biotechnologies | 136 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bayer | 127 | Unlock Company Profile |
| General Hospital | 102 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Intima Bioscience | 99 | Unlock Company Profile |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 83 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Modalis Therapeutics | 80 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Snipr Technologies | 77 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Danaher | 74 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Poseida Therapeutics | 73 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Children's Medical Center | 71 | Unlock Company Profile |
| DuPont de Nemours | 70 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Novartis | 69 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Metagenomi | 68 | Unlock Company Profile |
| bluebird bio | 66 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | 64 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Agilent Technologies | 63 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Seattle Children's Hospital | 63 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Biocad | 62 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) | 62 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Scribe Therapeutics | 61 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ginkgo Bioworks | 60 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories | 58 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres | 55 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique | 53 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Fate Therapeutics | 52 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Tropic Biosciences UK | 51 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific | 51 | Unlock Company Profile |
| AnGes | 49 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Synthego | 48 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Royal DSM | 46 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ElevateBio | 45 | Unlock Company Profile |
| EdiGene | 45 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CIBUS US | 44 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Sangamo Therapeutics is the leading patent filer in gene splicing nucleases. It is primarily focused on developing genomic medicines in rare disease, neurology, oncology and autoimmune. The company's proprietary zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) in vivo genome editing approach is being evaluated in multiple clinical trials to treat hemophilia B and lysosomal storage disorders MPS I and MPS II. S E. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics are the other key patent filers in gene splicing nucleases.
In terms of application diversity, Factor Bioscience is the top company, followed by bluebird bio and Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing). By means of geographic reach, Snipr Technologies holds the top position, while Factor Bioscience and Cibus are in second and third positions, respectively.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the pharmaceutical industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Pharmaceutical.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
