Geneva.- During the pandemic, China filed 276 patent applications for vaccines and 887 for covid-related treatments, figures much higher than those of its closest followers, a report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) indicated today.
The research, which attempts to analyze trends in the field of scientific and technological innovation during the response to the pandemic, shows that after China the largest patent applications for vaccines were filed in the US (72), Russia (21) and the United Kingdom (nine).
In the field of treatments, also led by China, the second position went to the US (292 patents), followed by India (60), South Korea (35), Russia (26) and the United Kingdom (22). .
In the first 20 months of the pandemic (from January 2020 to August 2021), WIPO registered 5,300 patent applications related to covid-19 in 49 national offices around the world, including 1,500 therapies and 400 vaccines (it should be noted many are still in the clinical trial phase).
The UN agency highlighted the great role of universities and public research organizations in innovation against the coronavirus, since 44% of these applications were submitted by this type of center, compared to 49% that came from corporations.
To put this in perspective, of all international patent applications filed with WIPO in 2021 in any innovative field, only 8% were filed by universities and public research centers.
“The report shows that the pandemic unleashed an unprecedented mobilization of the scientific community,” WIPO Director General Daren Tang said in a statement when presenting the results of the investigation.
Chronologically, already in January 2020 and before the global alert for covid-19 was unleashed, patents had been requested for eight vaccines and 30 treatments related to the disease.
The month where the activity was most intense was, however, March of that year, when the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the pandemic: then 70 patent applications for vaccines and 353 for treatments were filed, according to the report. from WIPO. EFE
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