R&D Landscape for Breast Cancer through Patent Documents

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, and is estimated to be the cause of 13.1 million deaths in 2030. Breast cancer is the second cancer in the global mortality ranking, considering both sexes. Due to the burden of breast cancer worldwide, this paper aims to present an overview of the main R&D efforts focusing on breast cancer treatment. Patents were retrieved from the Derwent Innovations Index?, which has a specific code for pharmaceuticals related to breast cancer. A total of 423 patent documents filed in recent years were identified, of which 126 are exclusively for breast cancer, 169 for breast cancer and other cancers, and 128 are inventions related to the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The patent documents were classified into two large groups, the first of which had a predominance of claims for antibodies, proteins and polypeptides for use in medication production, while the second focuses on gene therapy, nucleotides and RNA. The country with the majority of priority patent applications was found to be the United States, followed by China and Japan.