Patent is essentially an Intellectual Property. When a patent is registered, the exclusive right to utilise the intangible creation of the human mind rests with the person in the name of who, the patent is registered.
The owner of the pharmaceutical patents has the sole right to exclude anyone from making, offering for sale, using, or selling the invention for a period of 20 years from the date of registering the patent.
Criteria for Patentability
The patent can be granted the geographical patent rights, it should cater to the following criteria:
The invention should essentially be a patentable subject matter.
It should contain the unity of invention
It should be capable of industrial application
Pharmaceutical patents help in the innovative development of new medicines for various diseases. With the help of patenting the manufacturing processes of the drugs and medicines, the companies can safeguard their investment done on the whole process thereby, remaining unique in the market. When the pharma companies know that their drugs and medicines are safe in the market, they can spend millions of dollars without worrying and further spend on the research and development as they know they will be able to take benefit of the sales.
We know that the pharma products are not manufactured in a day. From the inception of the idea to devising a formula to testing and then final application, it is a long process. On an average, for a new medicine to enter the market, it takes 10-15 years of hardwork and patience.
As the cost of producing the medicine is more, patent protection is mandatory in the pharma industry. Patents become legal protection of the investors and encourage the investors to recoup the investments.
Patents relating to pharmaceutical inventions
Patent claims related to a pharmaceutical product can be an active ingredient that will be either used separately or with prodrugs, salts etc. Patent in pharma industry can be a manufacturing process as well that includes the process and the product both. While developing the drugs, the element of invention must always be there to distinguish it from the rest of the drugs in the market.
Patents relating to formulations and compositions
An active patented ingredient can be used in various forms or dosages such as tablets, ointment, capsules, solutions as so on. This in turn, can be formulated into different pharmaceutical products. A huge number of products are manufactured using this technique with the help of same ingredient but patented differently. However, the claim over these processes are not inventive and patenting the same depends upon the rules prevalent.
Patents are an important tool in the pharmaceutical industry and it is due to intellectual property rights, we can see numerous inventions in the medical field everyday.
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