Analysis of antibiotic patents issued in China from 1992 to 2011.

Introduction: The wide use of antibiotics both within and beyond the medical territory plays a significant role in the development of resistant bacteria. Therefore, there is a pressing need for the development of effective antibiotics worldwide. Areas covered: The current analysis report covers the scientific progress in supporting antibiotic patent application and the granted patent literature in China for the last 20 years. Expert opinion: Among the 2780 patents granted in China last 20 years, beta-lactam antibiotics, macrolides, quinolones, aminoglycosides, sulfonamides, glycopeptides and tetracyclines constitute 44.3, 17.4, 13.5, 4.1, 3.8, 3.0 and 2.1% of total patents, respectively. Scientists have faced challenges in developing new antibiotics against increasingly growing types of drug-resistant bacteria, which may causes serious global public health disaster in future. Poor financial investment in antibiotic research has exacerbated the situation. Therefore, new antibiotic patents will be applied continuously. The combination individual beta-lactam antibiotics with a beta-lactamase inhibitor have been demonstrated clinically beneficial and may suggest a new way for the development of more effective antibiotics in future. Local patent applications of China are stably increasing largely through a dependence on the imitation of Western drugs. The current study may help to better understand the patent situation in China and to invent the more efficient antibiotic therapies.