title: Analysis of antibiotic patents issued in China from 1992 to 2011.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among the 2780 patents granted in China last 20 years, β-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 β-lactam antibiotics with a β-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.
authors.affiliation: The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Shenyang, Liaoning 110840, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Huiyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shaoheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002681:China; D055808:Drug Discovery; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010330:Patents as Topic; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal