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 (AI). In the last three years alone, there have been over 136,000 patents filed and granted in the pharmaceutical industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in pharma: drug repurposing AI. Buy the report here.

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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 730,000 patents to analyze innovation intensity for the pharmaceutical industry, there are 80+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Drug repurposing AI is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence

AI-assisted drug repurposing involves utilizing artificial intelligence algorithms and techniques to identify potential new uses for existing drugs. This can involve analyzing large amounts of chemical and biological data to identify new molecular targets for these drugs, predicting the binding affinity of the drugs with the target, potential side effects and drug interactions, and identifying patient populations that may benefit from repurposed drugs.

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 470+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established pharmaceutical companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of drug repurposing AI.

Key players in drug repurposing AI – 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 drug repurposing AI

Company Total patents (2021 - 2023) Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies
Illumina 293 Unlock Company Profile
Koninklijke Philips 214 Unlock Company Profile
NantWorks 198 Unlock Company Profile
BostonGene 169 Unlock Company Profile
Ginkgo Bioworks 93 Unlock Company Profile
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals 90 Unlock Company Profile
Blackstone 87 Unlock Company Profile
IBM 87 Unlock Company Profile
F. Hoffmann-La Roche 85 Unlock Company Profile
Codexis 85 Unlock Company Profile
Corteva 68 Unlock Company Profile
Native Microbials 56 Unlock Company Profile
Natera 50 Unlock Company Profile
Johnson & Johnson 48 Unlock Company Profile
InVitae 48 Unlock Company Profile
MeMed Diagnostics 44 Unlock Company Profile
Danaher 43 Unlock Company Profile
Five3 Genomics 40 Unlock Company Profile
Tencent 37 Unlock Company Profile
Gritstone Bio 35 Unlock Company Profile
Bayer 34 Unlock Company Profile
HDT Global 33 Unlock Company Profile
Tempus Labs 33 Unlock Company Profile
Sony Group 29 Unlock Company Profile
Worldwide Innovative Networking in personalized cancer medicine consortium 29 Unlock Company Profile
Abbott Laboratories 29 Unlock Company Profile
Tata Sons 28 Unlock Company Profile
Biogen 27 Unlock Company Profile
Beijing BGI-GBI Biotech 27 Unlock Company Profile
BioMarker Strategies 26 Unlock Company Profile
Dell Technologies 24 Unlock Company Profile
Nautilus Biotechnology 24 Unlock Company Profile
Microsoft 24 Unlock Company Profile
DNAnudge 23 Unlock Company Profile
Novartis 22 Unlock Company Profile
Nant 22 Unlock Company Profile
Sophia Genetics 21 Unlock Company Profile
BillionToOne 21 Unlock Company Profile
Thermo Fisher Scientific 21 Unlock Company Profile
Cyclica 21 Unlock Company Profile
Deep Genomics 20 Unlock Company Profile
ioGenetics 20 Unlock Company Profile
Eurofins Scientific 20 Unlock Company Profile
InSilico Medicine 18 Unlock Company Profile
Human Longevity 18 Unlock Company Profile
The Corporation For Penn State 17 Unlock Company Profile
Fry Laboratories 17 Unlock Company Profile
ProdermIQ 16 Unlock Company Profile
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 16 Unlock Company Profile
OncXerna Therapeutics 16 Unlock Company Profile

Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics

Ginkgo Bioworks is one of the leading patent filers in drug repurposing using AI. The company uses software and AI-based tools to engineer enzymes, proteins and drug molecules. A pioneer in digital health, the company combines computational design with synthetic biology platform and ultra-high-throughput genetic engineering and screening in process development and manufacturing scale-up.

In terms of application diversity, DNAnudge leads the pack, while Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Ginkgo Bioworks stood in the second and third positions, respectively.

By means of geographic reach, BostonGene held the top position, followed by MeMed Diagnostics and Worldwide Innovative Networking in personalized cancer medicine consortium.

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the pharmaceutical industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare.

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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.