AI In The Pharmaceutical Industry

• Published date: 03 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Technology, Patent, Trade Secrets, Food and Drugs Law, Biotechnology & Nanotechnology, New Technology
• Law Firm: Marks & Clerk
• Author: Mr Phillip Bennett and David Lang

AI is set to revolutionise how new pharmaceuticals are brought to market. So why aren't the major pharmaceutical companies filing patents to AI-related inventions?

Investment in AI-related research and development has surged in recent years, and AI is increasingly seen as key to the future of innovation in the life sciences. Innovators are now applying AI methods to an enormous range of problems, from modelling biological systems and predicting the efficacy and safety of candidate drugs in early stage drug discovery to symptom evaluation, risk management and diagnostics.

Given the promise and potentially disruptive impacts of AI on the life sciences, it is no surprise that the list of pharmaceutical companies using AI continues to grow. The biggest players in the sector are seeking to unleash the power of AI to boost their pipelines, whether that is through developing AI expertise in house, partnering with companies specialising in AI, or through industry wide efforts such as Machine Learning Ledger Orchestration for Drug Discovery (MELLODDY), Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical Discovery and Synthesis Consortium (MLPDS) or the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH).

With all the interest in using AI in drug development, it is natural to expect a rush of related patent filings. Indeed, our analysis of patent filings shows that Life & Medical Science has the largest share of AI-related patent filings of any technology sector, accounting for 16% of European patent filings over the last 20 years (see here for full report AI patents at the EPO - a long-term trend analysis). Moreover, about 10% of the cases in the data classified as Life & Medical Sciences are classified as relating to traditional pharmaceutical preparations (i.e. they are classified under International Patent Classification code A61K). The interest in using AI to drive pharmaceutical innovation is clear. However, a closer look at who is filing these applications reveals that this high volume of patent filings is not bring driven by major pharmaceutical companies.

Our analysis of European patent filings allows us to see who has been filing AI-related applications in different sectors. Of the top 20 filers of AI-related applications in the Life & Medical Science sector in 2019 and 2020, only one major pharmaceutical company features. The list of top filers is dominated by tech firms - start-ups and established tech firms entering the life sciences space. What is more, barely...