BioPharma

Here’s an infographic of drug patents expiring in 2017

Drug patents are always more complicated than they seem, but a new infographic from Dickson Data spells out some of what you need to know in 2017, in an easily consumable way.

By Juliet Preston on January 05, 2017

date of expiry canned food close up: letters and numbers of date of best before on silver colored metal aluminium can, tin upside down,canned food close up: letters and numbers of date of best before on silver colored metal aluminium can, tin upside down, white background

Dickson Data is back at it. On Thursday it released a new infographic [below] showing which drug patents are set to expire in 2017.

It follows the template of its popular 2016 infographic, which highlighted several major biopharma threats and trends. Times were tough for AstraZeneca, which had $7.4 billion in sales under threat as Crestor and Seroquel XR lose patent exclusivity.

In 2017, a total of 22 drug patents will lose protection according to Dickson’s calculations. That happens to exactly match the number of new drugs approved in 2016, a more than 50 percent decrease on approvals the year before.

Big pharma will need to stretch out its existing sales as best it can.

Merck is in the hot seat this year, with four major drugs expected to roll off the patent cliff. It did, however, secure two new approvals last year.

Novartis failed to commercialize any new therapies in 2016 and its $1.6 billion Sandostatin LAR empire is under threat. Bristol-Myers Squibb is in the same boat, with no new approvals and the loss of patent protection on Reyataz, which clocked $1.14 billion in sales in 2016.

GlaxoSmithKline had no new approvals and will lose exclusivity on three of its longstanding drugs this year, Arranon, Treximet and Mepron.

Source: Dickinson Data, January 2017

Source: Dickson Data, January 2017

Dickson Data’s infographics are well researched and visualized. However, a caveat is needed. There are few absolutes in today’s life science intellectual property landscape, as discussed in Tuesday’s article, Drug patents expiring in 2017? It’s all smoke and mirrors.

EP Vantage, the editorial arm of market intelligence firm Evaluate Pharma, discussed patent expirations in its 2017 pharma preview report. Yet the five patents that it highlighted as under threat in 2017 all differ from those listed in Dickson Data’s infographic.

Source: EvaluatePharma Nov. 2016

Source: EvaluatePharma Nov. 2016

The upshot: It’s all very complicated and variable from region to region. Eli Lilly is in court battling over Alimta patents. Rulings on Takeda’s Velcade have been going back and forth. It’s probably best to leave the details to the lawyers and wait for the generics and biosimilars to confirm any patent protection has gone.

Photo: w-ings, Getty Images