Which pharmaceutical drugs have the most patents?
This chart shows the pharmaceutical drugs with the greatest number of patents still in force.
The number of patents covering a drug can be indicative of the value of a drug — more valuable drugs justify the substantial expense of building and maintaining large patent portfolios — but they can also be indicative of a company's legal or R&D acumen.
One clear way to keep competitors at bay is to surround key drugs with a web of strong patents, making it unlikely there will be any way to work around patents or invalidate a sufficient number of them. A large patent portfolio can also indicate strong, innovation-oriented R&D, with a focus on securing IP.
The drugs with the most unexpired patents are:
