Abstract:
This study focuses on joint patent applications in China’s biopharmaceutical industry over the past decade, involving collaborations between industry, academia, and research institutions. The aim was to comprehensively understand the current status of these joint patent applications, identify existing problems, and propose recommendations to the government and relevant agencies on how to address these issues and promote the development of industry-academia-research patent collaborations. The study utilized the incoPat global patent database to obtain the necessary patent data and constructed a dataset of joint patents applied through industry-academia, industry-research, and academia-research collaborations. Statistical analyses were conducted from various perspectives, including types of collaborations, geographical distribution, applicant profiles, and legal status. Based on patent data from Jiangsu province, a collaborative network was constructed for further investigation. The results indicate that joint patent applications in China’s biopharmaceutical industry are in a phase of steady growth, with the majority of joint applications stemming from industry-academia collaboration. However, the joint application for patents between industry and research is relatively slow in development. There is a geographical imbalance in the distribution of patents, with more being concentrated in the east compared to the west. A61P35/00 (anti-tumor drug) is the most active field for industry-academia-research collaborative patent applications, with cooperation encompassing multi-dimensional improvements in the safety, efficacy, and accessibility of drugs. Portions of patents co-filed by industry, academia, and research institutions have failed to transition technology into products, resulting in insufficient practical benefits from the co-filed patents. Chinese research institutions show a lesser engagement in joint patent applications with foreign entities compared to universities and enterprises. Many collaborations in the network are incidental or single, and smaller entities such as small and micro-enterprises and ordinary universities or colleges have not been actively involved in industry-academia-research collaborations. The government and relevant agencies can guide industry-academia-research joint patent applications by streamlining incentive policies, facilitating patent information channels, and promoting cross-regional collaborations.