[Fast track patent program for COVID-19 in BrazilProceso rápido de concesión de patentes para enfrentar la COVID-19 en Brasil].

With the objective of stimulating the production and licensing of new technologies, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), the agency responsible for granting patents in Brazil, created a priority or fast track procedure for patent processes related to innovations that can be used against COVID-19. The first effects of this institutional measure are assessed in the present work, based on the identification and analysis of the time elapsed between fast track requests by the Ministry of Health or through petition by the depositors themselves. The results demonstrate that the INPI was able to successfully respond to the public health emergency by granting patents on average 5.

Inventive step assessment of top selling monoclonal antibodies in Brazil.

: The patent system is fundamental for the pharmaceutical industry development, providing a return on the large investment of time and financial resources. Among the patentability requirements, understanding how to comply with the inventive step is especially important for patent applicants. Regarding mAbs, due to the high affinity and specificity for their molecular therapeutic target, minimal structural changes can lead to unexpected properties, being a common issue among Patent Offices.

Revisiting the concept of Innovative Developing Countries (IDCs) for its relevance to health innovation and neglected tropical diseases and for the prevention and control of epidemics.

Introduction: Countries have traditionally been split into two major groups: developed or industrialized ("the North") and developing or underdeveloped ("the South"). Several authors and organizations have challenged this classification to recognize countries that have reached an intermediate stage of social and economic development. As proposed by Morel and collaborators in 2005, the concept of Innovative Developing Countries (IDCs) defines a group of nations with impactful scientific programs.

[How much does the backlog on drug patents cost for health in Brazil?].

The backlog in processing patent applications in Brazil has persisted since the enactment of Law 9,279/1996, when the country resumed granting patents on drugs. The agencies responsible for granting such patents, namely the Brazilian National Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) and the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) cite technical and administrative reasons for the backlog. However, little research has focused on the economic impacts for health due to the inefficiency of the Brazilian patent system.

Enabling policy planning and innovation management through patent information and co-authorship network analyses: a study of tuberculosis in Brazil.

Introduction: New tools and approaches are necessary to facilitate public policy planning and foster the management of innovation in countries' public health systems. To this end, an understanding of the integrated way in which the various actors who produce scientific knowledge and inventions in technological areas of interest operate, where they are located and how they relate to one another is of great relevance. Tuberculosis has been chosen as a model for the present study as it is a current challenge for Brazilian research and innovation.

Intellectual property rights related to the genetically modified glyphosate tolerant soybeans in Brazil.

The present work analyzes the different modalities of protection of the intellectual creations in the biotechnology agricultural field. Regarding the Brazilian legislations related to the theme (the Industrial Property Law - no. 9.

[Specificities of patent protection in the pharmaceutical industry: modalities and traits of intellectual property].

Different forms of protection for inventions in the pharmaceutical industry point to strategies for the perpetuation of patent protection. Based on a literature review showing the specificities of patenting in the industry, the article provides a brief history of drug patents in Brazil, a discussion of patentable and non-patentable inventions, and the modalities and traits of patent protection that aim to extend the temporary monopoly granted under the patent. Such strategies include patents targeting polimorphs and optical isomers of drugs and drug combinations and specific clinical preparations, increasingly present in the drug patent claims filed by pharmaceutical companies.