Intellectual property (IP)

Securing the UK鈥檚 ambition to be a life science superpower

Developing medicines and vaccines is a uniquely high-risk, capital-intensive, and time-consuming process. For every 10,000 compounds that are tested, only one or two will successfully pass all stages of R&D and clinical trials to become marketable medicines.^[1]

A strong intellectual property (IP) framework therefore enables the development of cutting-edge medicines and sustains future innovation.听IP protection enables biopharmaceutical companies to continue investing in the high-risk process of medicines development, knowing that successful innovation will not be imitated without a period in which it can be appropriately rewarded.

The strength of the UK鈥檚 IP framework

has spurred the domestic biopharmaceutical industry to:

invest into R&D in the UK, consistently accounting for around 20% of all industry R&D carried out between 2014 and 2020^[1]
carry out 拢5 billion of pharmaceutical R&D in 2020, more than any other sector of the UK economy^[2]
file over听2,500 patent applications听for pharmaceutical products at the European Patent Office over the past 10 years ^[3]
be one of four industries with a high IP use by UK companies in all three registered IP rights (patents, trademarks, and registered designs); 52.1% (拢159.7 billion) of total UK goods export value came from industries with an above average use of at least one IP right ^[4]

Furthermore, the UK鈥檚 robust IP framework helps to ensure that successful innovation receives a fair return on costly medicines development, manufacturing, and commercialisation. This has helped the UK to become a major host of foreign direct investment (FDI), with the UK life sciences sector attracting 拢1 billion of inward investment in 2022>^[1]: supporting pharmaceutical manufacturing and highly skilled jobs across the UK.

The UK is classed as the fourth most innovative economy globally.^[2]

COVID-19 underscored the importance of our sector in discovering, developing, and producing innovative medicines and vaccines for the future. As such, the UK biopharmaceutical industry and broader life sciences sector will be key to attracting investment in the UK鈥檚 post-pandemic era.

This will fuel the government鈥檚 efforts to grow the economy through manufacturing and job creation, and support the UK鈥檚 overall future pandemic preparedness.

Orphan-and-Paediatric-Regulation-Infographic-March-2024

Intellectual property: enabling next-generation innovation

The UK鈥檚 framework of intellectual property (IP) incentives and rewards for the life sciences fosters, protects, and promotes biopharmaceutical innovation, unlocking much-needed investment for research and development into areas of unmet medical need.

Read Enabling next-generation innovation

References:

[1] 听(The Pharmaceutical Journal, May 2015).

[2]听 Office for Life Sciences (OLS), 鈥楲ife sciences competitiveness indicators 2023, Section 1: research environment鈥�, 13 July 2023, available at:

[3] Office for National Statistics (ONS), 鈥楤usiness enterprise research and development, UK: 2020鈥�, 19 November 2021, available at:

[4] European Patent Office (EPO), 鈥楨uropean patent applications per field of technology and per country of residence of the applicant for each individual year from 2013 until 2022, Pharmaceuticals鈥�, available at:

[5] Intellectual Property Office (IPO), 鈥楿se of Intellectual Property rights across UK industries: 5. IP intensive industries and the economy鈥�, 9 June 2022, available at:

[6] Office for Life Sciences (OLS), 鈥楲ife sciences competitiveness indicators 2023, Section 5: investment environment鈥�, 13 July 2023, available at:

[7] World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 鈥楪lobal Innovation Index 2023鈥�, 27 September 2023, available at:

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