Recent patents and a market overview on green or bio-based solvents for chromatographic analysis: a review

Green solvents (GSs) in chromatography originate from green chemistry. Therefore, using GSs in liquid chromatographic analysis to separate drugs and chemicals is an emerging approach to reduce hazardous chemicals in nature. The Orbit Intelligence database was used to conduct a strategic patent search for peer-reviewed patents on GSs as a mobile phase for chromatographic analysis. This article reported numerous approaches for encouraging GSs such as ethanol, butanol, esters, polyethylene glycol, supercritical fluids and nonionic surfactants to analyze drugs or compounds. The main aim of this article is to explore the patented GSs for chromatographic analysis and forecasting of the GSs that encourage industries to shift from hazardous to GSs.

Patent highlights June–July 2021

A snapshot of noteworthy recent developments in the patent literature of relevance to pharmaceutical and medical research and development.

Small-molecule inhibitor PD-1/PD-L1 interaction for colorectal cancer treatment

Inhibition of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway is a target for the development of new therapies. US10710986 patent describes a small molecule that targets PDL-1/PD-1 interactions and triggers antitumor activity against colorectal cancer. However, it does not describe biological assays that allow us to suppose that this small molecule may be active in other types of cancer. So far, there are no reports of clinical trials to evaluate the safety, toxicity and efficacy, but it will be of great interest to analyze in the future if this compound surpasses the action of therapy in cancer.

Patent highlights April–May 2021

A snapshot of noteworthy recent developments in the patent literature of relevance to pharmaceutical and medical research and development.

A nontoxic ionic liquid composition for the delivery of biological macromolecular anions across the skin barrier

The development of biocompatible ionic liquids is needed in order to explore their vastly underutilized pharmaceutical potential. US10912834 patent discloses ionic liquids comprising macromolecular biological anions and alkylated cations, which provides enhanced dermal delivery and cell internalization of the large biological anions. The studies of ex vivo permeation through excised pig skin indicated significantly higher skin penetration of percent dose and enhanced drug internalization was achieved using these ionic liquids. Although, the patent advances an infant field of biological macromolecule-based ionic liquids, the evaluation of these claimed ionic liquids relies only on the in vivo cytotoxicity data and ex vivo skin permeation behavior. Exhaustive studies, including dermatokinetic evaluation and long-term animal toxicity experiments, should be performed in order to unravel the potential of the aforementioned ionic liquids.

Patentability challenges associated with emerging pharmaceutical technologies

According to the recent patent filing trends, it has been observed that certain pharmaceutical technologies are more popular than others and are commonly referred to as emerging technologies. The emerging technologies in the pharmaceutical sector include artificial intelligence, big data and certain advanced biological therapies such as personalized medicine and stem cell therapy. These trends have various applications in the medicine and healthcare industry. Since these technologies are relatively new and each of them is very unique in its own way, current patent laws are inadequate to deal with the complex challenges associated with them. A brief analysis of the challenges associated with these emerging technologies and their applications is discussed in this paper.