Enhanced funding of pharmacoepidemiology through patenting the disclosure of adverse event information.

Purpose: Known drug adverse events have been estimated to be between the 4th and 6th leading cause of death in the US (1). There are currently insufficient funds to perform the quantity and quality of studies necessary to ensure all drug adverse events are discovered in a timely fashion.

Methods/results: One approach to attract capital for pharmacoepidemiology studies is to patent the discoveries from the studies. Potential investors, whether executives of branded pharmaceutical companies or not, will consider funding pharmacoepidemiology studies if they can expect to receive competitive returns on their investments. Pharmacoepidemiolists who desire to patent their discoveries should seek novel drug-drug and drug-food interactions or negative interactions between drugs and certain phenotypes, genotypes or preexisting comorbidities.

Conclusion: These discoveries can lead to safer, and patentable, use of the drug by avoiding these interactions.