In this article, Sian Gill, managing partner at leading full-service IP firm Venner Shipley, explores the acceleration of the global pharmaceuticals sector and explains why protecting IP is essential to maximising its long-term growth.
Venner Shipley
It’s safe to say that pharmaceuticals is big business. Recent insight suggests that the market is already worth in excess of $1.7 trillion, with a CAGR of 6.1% taking it to a value surpassing $2.3 trillion by 2030.
An aging population, rising demand for specialist healthcare and the drive towards personalised medicines are collectively fuelling insatiable drug demand, while the growth of biotech-based drugs, also known as biopharmaceuticals or biologics, (such as monoclonal antibodies, gene therapies and mRNA vaccines) are opening new and revolutionary treatment avenues.
Technologies like genomics and digital health are driving innovation, while AI is accelerating the approvals process. Elsewhere, strong profit incentives mean extensive funding is widespread. Indeed, in excess of $288 billion USD was invested in R&D spending alone last year (2024), making it one of the world’s most heavily invested sectors.
While blockbuster drugs, such as Ozempic, continue to hit the headlines (a brand now individually grossing more than $16 billion USD per annum), true innovation is coming from the smaller players. Insight suggests that there are now more active start-ups and spinouts in the pharmaceuticals space than ever before, with upwards of $26 billion invested in drug discovery start-ups over the past 12 months.
It’s these companies that are coming up with the new ideas, fresh thinking and early-stage research needed to take the industry forward – not necessarily the giants that one would expect. However, with innovation critical to driving the sector’s future growth, and the start-up community being notoriously delicate, putting in place robust strategies to protect their intellectual property is essential to maintain a vibrant and progressive industry.
The fragile nature of drug development
Unlike many sectors, start-up and scale-up firms in the pharmaceuticals sector are typically relatively heavily funded. After all, a significant burn rate is needed to identify viable development opportunities and deliver the early-stage research required to take an idea from inception through to clinical trials.
However, funding can only take you so far. Once a programme successfully reaches the trial stage, acquisition is often the only option to achieve full commercialisation.
What do you sell? IP. But the whole situation is incredibly fragile. Exit too early and you risk undervaluing your innovation. Exit too late and that burn rate could very well lead to collapse. In the case of the latter, your hard-earned IP becomes inevitably free to use. It’s a hard balance and often comes down to meticulous, collaborative, forward-thinking planning.
So, protecting IP must therefore be a major priority for those pioneering companies working at the coal face of rapid drug discovery and development. But rather than simply considering individual IP rights, it’s the value of the portfolio that must be taken into account. Consideration must be given to all aspects of the innovation and development – from the drug to the formulation, the format and the dosage.
Closely managing IP portfolios
At Venner Shipley, we work with clients across the pharmaceuticals sector. We work closely with businesses of all sizes to support them throughout the entire development lifecycle.
We guide patent strategy to help create robust patent portfolios that protect the fruits of innovation and investment to maximise the value of the company. We also advise on the IP landscape and use that knowledge and understanding to create and maximise opportunities for our clients.
A good example of this is our work alongside Inflazome, a pioneering biotech company that develops targeted therapies for inflammatory diseases. Since Inflazome’s inception in 2016, we have worked in close collaboration with the senior team to advise on every aspect of their patent portfolio, effectively acting as their in-house patent department. Our work has included identifying patentable subject matter in a complex and crowded technical field, as well as liaising with subcontractors, providing patentability advice and both drafting and prosecuting patent applications worldwide. We also advised on patent strategy and monitored competitors’ applications.
As the business approached trade sale, we were heavily involved in the IP aspects of the due diligence and acquisition process, which led to a successful acquisition by the global pharmaceutical company Roche, as part of a $449 million deal. Since then, we have continued to work with Roche on the Inflazome patent portfolio.
Elsewhere within the pharmaceuticals sector, we recently supported Tagomics as it completed a £6.7m funding round. Our patents team provided IP support which proved pivotal to securing the funding, including helping to present the company’s IP strategy to potential investors, as well as demonstrating the strengths of the portfolio. Since closing the round, we have been engaged to support the company’s trademark and patent portfolios, as well as provide strategic advice in regard to third party IP rights.
Supporting the drive to the industry of tomorrow
Protecting IP will continue to prove essential to maximising the long-term growth of the pharmaceuticals sector, in particular when it comes to the innovative firms at the start-up and scale-up end. However, it’s a delicate marketplace and one that requires careful nurturing and collaboration.
Maximising and protecting your IP portfolio should therefore be considered a key commercial priority. Working with a proven partner to take the weight off your shoulders can deliver significant commercial benefit, leaving you free to focus on driving widespread innovation – from inception to clinical trials.