To get a quick look at who is holding patents on the Hepatitis C Virus, I did some searches of the USPTO database. In each search, I looked for the term HCV in the field for patent claims (ACLM). Note this is fairly arbitrary, and I get different (and higher) numbers if I include HCV in the Abstract. In any case:
There were 1164 patents that have the term HCV in the patent claim.
Of the 1164 patents with HCV in the patent claim, 75 were assigned to non-federal government owners, but disclosed federal funding and government rights in the patents, and 11 are assigned to the US federal government. Together the inventions declaring federal funding are 7 percent of the total.
There are 96 patents have the term HCV in the claims, and are assigned to an entity with the term University or College in the name. Of these 96 patents, 56 disclose federal funding and federal rights in the patents.
Country of Assignee
I also looked at the country of the Assignee
The USPTO as a field in the patent database for the country of assignment. Unfortunately, the USPTO only began to include a code for the US in 2006. For the years 2006 to the present, there were 764 patents with the term HCV in the claims. Of these, 501 patents (65.6 percent) were assigned to a US owner, and 263 (34.4 percent) were assigned to a non-US owner.
For non-US entities, the country of assignment searches work for all years, showing the assignment when the patent was granted (as opposed to any current assignments that may exist). For the all of the patents with HCV in the patent claim, from 1992 to the present, the country of assignment at the grant of the patent is as follows, for the following 15 countries.
- Germany: 56 patents.
- Belgium: 54 patents.
- Canada: 49 patents.
- Japan: 39 patents.
- France: 36 patents.
- Sweden: 32 patents.
- Italy: 29 patents.
- Great Britain: 21 patents.
- Ireland: 16 patents.
- Switzerland: 15 patents.
- Australia: 15 patents.
- Austria: 11 patents.
- Denmark: 10 patents.
- Korea: 9 patents.
- Israel: 7 patents.
- Taiwan: 5 patents.
- Netherlands: 4 patents.
- China: 4 patents.
- Greece: 2 patents.
- India: 2 patents.
- Poland: 1 patent.
- Cuba: 1 patent.
- 12 members of the European Union: 271 patents.
- 16 members of the European Union, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain: 0 patents.
- 12 members of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR): 0 patents.
- Selected high risk countries: Egypt, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan,Romania, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine: 0 patents.
Company of Assignment
For the company receiving an assignment of a patent with the term hcv in the claim, these are results for the following companies :
(Note, this is not an exhaustive list)
- Chiron: 86 patents. (owned by Novartis)
- Bristol Myers: 69 patents.
- Boehringer Ingelheim: 57 patents.
- Schering: 55 patents. (Schering-Plough acquired by Merck in 2009)
- Vertex: 46 patents
- Innogenetics: 45 patents. (Acquired by Solvay in 2008, Abbott in 2009 and Fujirebio in 2010)
- Novartis: 41 patents.
- Roche: 37 patents.
- Enanta: 37 patents. (Licensed several patents to Abbott in 2006, entered into an agreement with Novartis in 2012. Abbvie may acquire in 2014)
- Gilead: 36 patents.
- Merck: 36 patents.
- Abbvie or Abbott: 30 patents.
- Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare P. Angeletti S.p.A. (IRBM): 15 patents. (part of US Merck)
- Medivir: 15 patents.
- Genelabs Technologies: 15 (In 2009, Genelabs was acquired by GSK)
- Tibotec: 11 patents. (owned by J&J)
- Janssen: 10 patents. (owned by J&J)
- SmithKline Beecham, or Glaxo or GSK: 9 patents.
- Isis Pharmaceuticals: 8 patents.
- Rigel Pharmaceuticals: 8 patents.
- Gen-Probe: 7 patents.
- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals: 7 patents.
- Biota Scientific Management: 7
- Chrontech Pharma: 6 patents
- Advanced Life Science Institute: 6 patents.
- Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics: 6 (owned by J&J)
- Idenix: 6 patents. (On June 9, 2014, Merck announced it would acquire Idenix)
- GlobeImmune: 6 patents.
- United Biomedical: 6 patents.
- Cenetron Diagnostics: 6 patents.
- Achillion Pharmaceuticals: 5 patents.
- Ambion: 5 patents.
- Bio Merieux: 5 patents.
- Pharmasset: 4 patents (Owned by Gilead)
- Akzo Nobel N.V.: 4 patents.
- Celgene Avilomics Research: 4 patents.
- Baxter: 4 patents.
- Hemavation: 3 patents.
- Eli Lily: 3
- Ribozyme: 3 patents.
- BioNova: 3 patents.
- Toray Industries: 3 patents.
- Progenics Pharmaceuticals: 3 patents.
- Immuno: 3 patents.
- Pfizer: 2 patents.
- Genoscience: 2 patents.
- Valneva Austria GmbH: 2 patents.
- Valeant: 2 patents.
- Prosetta Antiviral: 2 patents.
- PTC Therapeutics: 2 patents.
- Metabasis Therapeutics: 2 patents.
- Prosetta: 2 patents.
- Bio-Rad Innovations: 2 patents.
- Biostar: 2 patents.
- Transgene: 2 patents.
- Immusol: 2 patents.
- Sysmex: 2 patents.
- Mitsubishi: 2 patents.
- KMT Hepatech: 2 patents.
- Yeda Research and Development: 2 patents.
- Molecules of Man AB: 2 patents.
- AstraZeneca: 1
- Murex Diagnostics: 1
- Intermune: 1
- Sarepta Therapeutics: 1
- Alios BioPharma: 1
- Instant Medical Diagnostics: 1
- Arkray: 1
- Inhibitex: 1
- Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics: 1
- Amplimmune: 1
- Simpson Biotech: 1
- Scynexis: 1
- Dynavax Technologies
- General Antibodies and Biotechnologies: 1
- Intarcia Therapeutics: 1
- Sequoia Pharmaceuticals: 1
- Japan Tobacco: 1
- Immuno Aktiengesellschaft: 1 (since 1996, part of Baxter)
- Amgen: 1
- Wyeth: 1
- Hetero Drugs Limited (IN): 1
Other
These selected universities and governments are recipients of assignments of patents that have the term HCV in the patent claims.
(Note, this is not an exhaustive list)
- Washington University: 15 patents.
- The United States of America: 11 patents.
- Leland Stanford Junior University: 10 patents.
- Institut Pasteur: 8 patents.
- University of Texas: 8 patents.
- The Director General of the National Institute of Health of Japan: 8
- Emory University: 7 patents.
- Common Services Agency: 7 patents.
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique: 5 patents
- University of Pennsylvania: 5 patents.
- INSERM: 4 patents.
- Rockefeller University: 4 patents.
- The Regents of the University of California: 4 patents.
- University of Washington: 4 patents.
- Mogam Biotechnology Research Institute (Yongin-si, KR): 3 patents.
- KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD): 3 patents.
- The Johns Hopkins University: 3 patents.
- Florida State University: 3 patents.
- The Scripps Research Institute: 3 patents.
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University: 3 patents.
- Institut National de la Sante et de Recherche Medicale: 2 patents.
- Universita Degli Studi Di Cagliari: 2 patents.
- Universite Montpellier: 2 patents.
- McMaster University: 2 patents.
- University of Iowa: 2 patents.
- The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford: 2 patents
- Medical Research Council (London, GB): 2 patents.
- University of Georgia Research Foundation: 2 patents
- King’s College London (London, GB): 1 patent.
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research: 1 patent
- University of Madras (Chennai, IN): 1 patent
- Instytut Biochemii I Biofizyki (Warsaw, PL): 1 patent.
- Instytut Medycyny Doswiadczalnej I Kliniczne (Warsaw, PL): 1 patent.
- University de Strasbourg: 1 patent.
- Centro de Ingenieria Genetica y Biotecnologia (Ciudad de la Habana, CU): 1 patent.
Note, companies acquire patent licenses and patents from third parties, and may assign patents to companies with different names, including subsidiaries.
Year of patent grant
Finally, these are the numbers of patent grants, by year.
2014 (Through July 21): 86 patents.
2013: 127 patents.
2012: 132 patents.
2011: 79 patents.
2010: 88 patents.
2009: 55 patents.
2008: 64 patents.
2007: 73 patents.
2006: 60 patents.
2005: 49 patents.
2004: 38 patents.
2003: 58 patents.
2002: 48 patents.
2001: 49 patents.
2000: 38 patents.
1999: 39 patents.
1998: 42 patents.
1997: 13 patents.
1996: 9 patents.
1995: 6 patents.
1994: 8 patents.
1993: 0 patents.
1992: 2 patents.
Before 1992 = 0
In terms of averages:
Period: Average number of patents;
2012 to 2013: 130
2006 to 2011: 70
1998 to 2005: 45
1992 to 1997: 6
Before 1992: 0