In pharma and biotech, competitors’ patent filings are often the earliest signal of where they are heading, and a patent landscape shows who owns what, where the white space is and how a field is moving. At Evolve, we combine patent landscaping with clinical, deal and company intelligence to give you a clear view of your competitive position, and of the opportunities around it.
Landscapes built around your decisions
Whether you are choosing a new target, entering a new modality, planning a filing strategy or assessing a potential partner, we scope the landscape around the decision you need to make. We then search, classify and analyse the relevant patents and applications, and set out what they mean for your programme.
Finding the white space
Landscapes show where a field is crowded and where there is room to build new IP. We help you see where your own innovation can be protected, and how to position your filings to maximise their value.
Following the structure of the product
In complex fields, a useful landscape follows the structure of the product. For a cell therapy, for example, that means separate landscapes for the cell source, gene editing, delivery, the therapeutic construct and manufacturing. Each has its own foundational patents, often from academic institutions, and its own commercial players (Evolve Insights).
Crowded targets and real opportunities
Where many companies pursue the same targets, such as BCMA, CD19 and CD20 in CAR-T, a landscape shows how crowded the field is and what a new entrant will need to show to obtain a patent. Patent offices around the world ask what a new molecule adds over those already known, and the EPO in particular expects it to solve a problem over the prior art. Landscapes also show where the real opportunities lie, for example in cell-specific targeting for in vivo cell therapy.
Strength, not just numbers
Counting patents says little about who really controls a field. We look at the data behind the claims, so that the landscape separates well-supported, enforceable families from broad claims that may not survive a challenge (Evolve Insights).
Where a competitor’s real strength lies
Patent filings reveal far more than a press release. By pulling the experimental data from across a competitor’s portfolio, we can see which embodiments are well supported and which are claimed with little or no data, identify field-blocking IP, and often identify a competitor’s lead molecules directly from its filings (Evolve Insights).
Monitoring competitors
We track new patent publications, grants, oppositions, clinical trials, deals and company announcements for the competitors and technologies that matter to you, and report what has changed and why it matters.
Following the deals
Big pharma is increasingly buying platforms rather than single drugs, as the recent wave of advanced therapy acquisitions shows (Evolve Insights). Tracking deals alongside patents shows where a field is heading, which technologies are being consolidated and where partnering or acquisition interest is likely to follow.
From signal to strategy
Intelligence is only useful if it changes decisions. We highlight the developments that affect your freedom to operate, your filing strategy and your positioning with partners and investors, and recommend what to do about them.
A fast, strategic view
Companies and in-house teams often need a quick read on the competitive landscape to inform a decision or satisfy investors, without the cost of a full freedom to operate or invalidity opinion. We give you a data-grounded view of which third-party rights matter, how strong they really are, and where the risks and opportunities sit, and go deeper only where it is needed.
Regular reporting and keeping it current
We can deliver competitive intelligence as a one-off review or as regular updates, tailored to your programme and budget. Our own AI tools help us cover more sources more often, while our attorneys make the judgement calls. In fast-moving fields such as in vivo CAR-T and LNP delivery, the picture changes every month. We can update landscapes on a regular schedule so that your decisions rest on today’s picture. Landscapes also have to be global. In fields such as cell therapy, much of the new innovation, clinical data and patent filing now comes from China (Evolve Insights).
Scientific depth
A useful landscape depends on understanding the science. Our attorneys have scientific backgrounds across pharma and biotech, and our own AI tools, developed by our attorneys specifically for pharma and biotech IP, let us review more documents in more depth, while our attorneys make the judgement calls.
Linked to your wider IP strategy
Competitive intelligence feeds directly into freedom to operate and IP strategy, so that each decision is made on the same, current picture.
Fractional IP counsel
Our fractional IP counsel model places a named senior patent attorney inside your team as your head of IP, so that intelligence reaches the people who need it, from R&D to business development, and is acted on.
Why fractional IP counsel for competitive intelligence? Intelligence is only valuable if someone inside the business acts on it. As your fractional head of IP, one of our patent directors brings the real-world industry experience that you only get working in-house, knows which competitor moves matter to R&D and business development, and takes them to the board. Behind them are a specialist team and our own tools, including Ammonite charts, to keep landscapes current across a whole field, something a traditional IP firm rarely offers and a lone consultant cannot sustain. The result is intelligence with a global strategic approach, not just a list of patents.
Contact us today to discuss how we can keep you ahead of the competition.
Evolve AI
Ammonites: Patent portfolio visualisation
Patent strategy in the pharma industry is complex, multi-layered and can be infamously difficult to communicate. We solved that problem with the invention of the ammonite chart. Ammonites show the patent estate, or a whole competitive field, as a single visualisation. Ammonites are our go-to for boards and investors, and CEOs love them.
A spreadsheet or a complex array of arrows and dotted lines will not tell your board or an investor a clear story about your patents strategy. We build highly customisable and adaptable ammonites to help us tell the story about the IP that we want to tell. We’ve found that once you start using the ammonite, you can’t go back. We use it for:
- Board presentations and investor decks
- Strategic planning and life-cycle management
- Competitive analysis and landscape reviews
- Due diligence, where the first question is usually how long the runway is
- Internal R&D project and IP team meetings with our Fractional IP counsel clients
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