By Lindsey Gilroy and Tammy D'Amato of Patent Board™
The Pharmaceuticals industry includes companies involved in research, development and production of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicine. It also includes companies that produce vitamins, nutraceuticals and other health related products.
The Pharmaceuticals industry as a whole increases its patenting activity on the 2010 Pharmaceuticals Patent Scorecard™, with 27% more U.S. utility patents granted than the previous year. The majority of companies in the Pharmaceuticals industry show gains in patents, while just a handful maintain the same level of patenting, and less than a third of companies show declining patent volume. Of those companies that have fewer patents issued this year than in the previous year, most saw decreases that were fewer than ten patents and the largest decline was by just 16 patents. In contrast, the largest gain in patenting by a single company was 220 more patents than the previous year. Pfizer Inc saw its portfolio nearly triple in size, although a little over half of the increase came from its 2009 acquisition of fellow top ten Pharmaceuticals company Wyeth. Similarly, Merck & Co doubled its portfolio in the last year, but 44% of its issued patents were acquired when it bought Schering Plough in 2009. After their recent acquisition...
