Dublin, Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Microneedles for Drug Delivery Patent Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
Report's Key Features
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PDF with > 140 slides
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Excel file > 2,450 patent families
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IP trends, including time-evolution of published patents, and countries of patent filings
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Patents' legal status
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Ranking of main patent assignees
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Key players' IP position and relative strength of their patent portfolios
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Summary of the IP related to applications: Cancer therapy, Cosmetic, Diabetes, Ophthalmic, Pain management and Vaccine.
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Summary of the IP related to technologies: Applicators, housing, Coated, Hollow, Porous, Soluble, Hydrogel and Solid microneedles.
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Analysis of patent oppositions (Europe) and review of key patents.
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Excel database containing all patents analyzed in the report, including applications and technologies segmentations
Microneedles for drug delivery, a new way to deliver drugs through the stratum corneum
The global drug delivery market has been observed to be as large as USD 440.5 billion in 2018. Hypodermic needles are known to be very efficient and they have been used immensely in the delivery of biological macromolecules, insulin, vaccines, etc. However, their invasive nature, stability issues, and non-compliance have always been the issues of concern and led to the requirement of highly skilled medical practitioners for administration.
In this context, microneedles have shown immense potential, since they can easily, painlessly and safely deliver drugs without special storage infrastructure. Hence, they can be self-administered by anybody, thereby eliminating the need for a clinic visit and the assistance of skilled medical practitioners. This serves as an important advantage, especially in the emerging markets. Moreover, microneedles do not create sharp waste, thereby eliminating the problem of discarding needles and hazardous risks. Patients suffering from needle phobia can easily use microneedles. Indeed, according to a study published in Behavioral Neurology, 2014, around 3-4% of the world population faces needle phobia.
Microneedles for drug delivery are attracting interest from big companies and start-ups alike and show immense potential that could transform the global transdermal market. Furthermore, in the actual race to find a COVID-19 vaccine, numerous companies (e.g. Kindeva (3M), Debiotech, Verndari, NanoPass, Bioserentach, Sorrento Therapeutics, Merck, etc.) have developed or shared their microneedle delivery system and promising results have already been released. Other fields, like cosmetic, ophthalmic and diabetes showed important technological progress in the past few years that could disrupt the existing market and replace the current standard drug delivery system.
In this evolving context, it is crucial to understand the intellectual property position and strategy of these different players. Such knowledge can help detect business risks and opportunities, anticipate emerging technologies, and enable strategic decisions to strengthen one's market position.
The analysis of the time evolution of patent publications shows that using microneedles for drug delivery were first filed in the 1971 by ALZA corporation patent (US3964482). However, it was not possible to make such microstructure devices until the 1990s, with the advent of high-precision microelectronics industrial tools. Hence, no patent families were published until 1993 and publications increased from 2001/2002, mainly due to the patenting activity of ALZA Corporation and Becton and Dickinson. A stagnation phase was observed between 2007 and 2012, followed by a second acceleration phase related to the patenting activities of 3M, Toppan Printing and Hisamistu Pharmaceutical. Patent publications then accelerated from 2015 with the entry of numerous newcomers and the expansion of the cosmetic and soluble microneedles field. The main patent assignees are Asian industrial players that develop an international intellectual property strategy. Asia (CN, JP and KR) and US are the main territories of protection, which appear to be strategic territories for these applicants.
Analysis by segment
Microneedles for drug delivery can be applied to different fields and use different technologies (i.e. type of microneedles). Therefore, a technological segmentation was made for this IP landscape, as follows:
Applications: