Daiichi Sankyo gets a patent advantage

Apart from a five per cent share of the Indian pharmaceutical market, the purchase of Ranbaxy will take Daiichi Sankyo way ahead of others in the race among Indian companies for patent-protected drugs. A recent paper on ‘Patenting Landscape in India' by Evalueserve shows that Ranbaxy alone accounts for over 23 per cent of the total medicine patent applications filed by major domestic companies in India. The percentage could be as high as 34 if the patent applications submitted by Orchid, in which Ranbaxy has 14.5 per cent, is added. The Evalueserve study found that Ranbaxy led the group of top 200 patent filers in the period 2005-07 with 320 applications, followed closely by Dr Reddy's with 315 applications. Orchid comes third with 149 patent applications. By zeroing in on Ranbaxy, Daiichi has managed to get control over the two most aggressive patent filers in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. "Though applications need not mean grant of patents, the trend is obvious. Daiichi, which does not figure among the top 200 patent applicants in the India office, will lead the race for acquiring patent protection for future medicines," a Mumbai-based patent expert said. According to him, the data is a clear indication of how acquisitions of Indian companies can be related to intellectual property issues. Foreign pharmaceutical companies have been way ahead of their Indian counterparts when it comes to patent applications. The Evalueserve study said that Ranbaxy was 37th in the list of top 50 patent filers during 2005-07. Multinational companies like Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Sanofi Aventis, Novartis, Merck and Roche have all filed more patent applications than Ranbaxy in India. The Evalueserve study said the patent-filing trend of the top nine Indian pharmaceutical companies was interesting. The companies showed a marked difference in focus with respect to different patent jurisdictions. Some filed for more international patents, while others chose India. The study also said that if international patent applications were also considered, Ranbaxy's numbers were more than four times those of Dr Reddy's. By Ms.Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury.

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