The pharmaceutical industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by the evolution of 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: phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1) inhibitors. 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.
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 multi-specific 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
PDK-1 inhibitors is a key innovation area in the pharmaceutical industry
Phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1) inhibitors are a class of compounds designed to target and inhibit the activity of PDK-1, a protein kinase that plays a crucial role in regulating cell signaling pathways. PDK-1 is part of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, which is involved in cell growth, proliferation, and survival. Inhibiting PDK-1 activity can have therapeutic potential, particularly in the context of cancer and other diseases where dysregulated cell signaling contributes to the disease pathogenesis.
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 110+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established pharmaceutical companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of PDK-1 inhibitors.
Key players in PDK-1 inhibitors – 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 PDK-1 inhibitors
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 196 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals | 166 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Johnson & Johnson | 121 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Arbutus Biopharma | 111 | Unlock Company Profile |
| HEC Pharm Group | 104 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Pfizer | 103 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Betta Pharmaceuticals | 70 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | 54 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Kirin | 52 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine | 51 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Cancer Research UK | 45 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Beijing Scitech-MQ Pharmaceuticals | 44 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Daiichi Sankyo | 40 | Unlock Company Profile |
| C. H. Boehringer Sohn | 36 | Unlock Company Profile |
| BioMarin Pharmaceutical | 32 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Incyte | 30 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Triphase Accelerator | 29 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Actuate Therapeutics | 28 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Eli Lilly | 28 | Unlock Company Profile |
| AbbVie | 27 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hanmi Science | 27 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Pierre Fabre Foundation | 27 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | 25 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ipsen | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Merck | 22 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Capella Therapeutics | 22 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Capulus Therapeutics | 21 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Teva Pharmaceutical Industries | 21 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Raze Therapeutics | 20 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Swiss Rockets | 19 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Zydus Lifesciences | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| TransThera Sciences (Nanjing) | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Forma Therapeutics | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| TaiRx | 17 | Unlock Company Profile |
| PIQUR Therapeutics | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Amgen | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bayer Pharma (Bayer Schering Pharma) | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Tetranov International | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Zhejiang Beta Pharma | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Skyhawk Therapeutics | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Beta Pharma | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ExonHit Therapeutics | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Sumitomo Chemical | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Strides Pharma Science | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Infinity Pharmaceuticals | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| AstraZeneca | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| AB Pharma | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Gvk Davix Technologies | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Group | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| E. Merck | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
F. Hoffmann-La Roche is one of the leading patent filers in PDK-1 inhibitors. F. Hoffmann-La Roche, commonly known as Roche, is a pharmaceutical company that has been involved in the development of kinase inhibitors, a class of drugs that target specific protein kinases involved in various cellular signaling pathways. Vemurafenib is a kinase inhibitor developed by Roche in collaboration with Plexxikon. It is used to treat patients with melanoma, whose tumors have a specific mutation in the BRAF gene known as the V600E mutation. Cobimetinib is another kinase inhibitor developed by Roche and Exelixis. Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson are some of the other key patent filers in PDK-1 inhibitors.
In terms of application diversity, Pierre Fabre Foundation leads the pack, while Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Arbutus Biopharma stood in second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Arbutus Biopharma held the top position, followed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
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.
