The number of patent applications for Covid-19 diagnostic technologies increased significantly since the Covid-19 outbreak in January 2020, government data showed.
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the number of patent applications related to Covid-19 diagnosis has steadily increased to 189 as of Monday in 15 months since February 2020.
The recent growth in patent applications for Covid-19 diagnosis was particularly rapid, compared to those in the wake of the 2002 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and 2013 MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreaks.
The patent applications tended to increase along with a rise in Covid-19 cases. The patent applications rose particularly in April with the first wave of the pandemic, in July-August with the second, and recently with the third.
Covid-19 diagnostic technologies are divided into molecular diagnostics that detect RNA, a viral gene that causes infectious diseases, and immunodiagnostics that detects antigens and antibodies, which are proteins made from the Covid-19 virus. There were 91 patent applications for molecular diagnostics, and 98 for immunodiagnostics, in the past 15 months.
In the early outbreak of Covid-19, there were more patent applications for molecular diagnostics. Recently, however, those for immunodiagnostics increased with rising demand for real-time diagnosis.
Among 91 patent applications for molecular diagnostics, 39 were for RT-PCR tests, 26 for isothermal amplification, eight for gene-editing tools, and 18 for other technologies, including biomarkers.
In the early days of the outbreak, most patents aimed at specifying gene fragments to amplify the target of analysis. However, with the advent of many Covid-19 variants, patents now focus more on detecting virus variants and other respiratory disease viruses simultaneously.
Immunodiagnostics, which detects antigens and antibodies, makes the Covid-19 screening simple and produces results quickly. KIPO received 72 patent applications for antigen diagnosis and 12 for antibody diagnosis.
Due to the demand for rapid and easy Covid-19 tests, recent patent applications mostly aimed to detect antigens, KIPO said.
However, with the start of the vaccination program recently, there will be more patent applications to detect neutralizing antibodies, which are immune proteins generated after vaccination, it added.
By applicant, government agencies and research institutes applied for 24 patents, universities, 55, companies, 95, individuals, 14, and a foreigner.
Among the total, companies accounted for 50 percent of the applicants, and universities, 29 percent, signaling that patent applications based on basic research were steadily growing.
Among the 189 patent applications, 38 or 22.1 percent of the total were submitted based on the national research and development projects, according to KIPO.
“The government’s support for Covid-19 technology development seems to have led to an increase in patent applications,” KIPO said. “As the government plans to spend 787.8 billion won ($706.8 million) on R&D for infectious diseases and the bio-health sector this year, up 49.3 percent from a year earlier, there will be more active patent applications in this area.”