Exactly one year ago, on March 1, 2021, the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register, a unique database of Eurasian patents related to active pharmaceutical ingredients, was launched.

Currently the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register contains information on 292 Eurasian patents and 198 international nonproprietary names (INN). The leaders in the number of registered patents are large international pharmaceutical companies, the list of which is headed by the German corporation Boehringer Ingelheim with 36 patents. Russian companies still account for a small share of Eurasian patents represented in the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register.

— The EAPO Pharmaceutical Register has increased the transparency of the drug market in the Eurasian region. This is an effective mechanism for preventing patent infringement. When the focus is on people’s health, it is important to understand the meaning of patenting. Obtaining a patent does not mean “closing” the invention from public. Conversely, it is a market instrument. Developers and researchers can instantly receive reliable and up-to-date information on patent rights in force in the territory of the EAPC Contracting States in relation to the active ingredients of medicines, which is important to create more advanced drugs and affordable generics. We are confident that pharmaceutical companies in the Eurasian region will increase the use of the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register both for their own research and for the protection of their legal rights,” noted EAPO President Grigory Ivliev.

The EAPO Pharmaceutical Register is an open database that includes information about Eurasian patents, its patent owners, data on the validity of the patents in the territory of the states party to the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC), as well as about registered medicines. The EAPO Pharmaceutical Register, linked to the Register of Eurasian Patents and the Eurasian Publication Server, allows searching for information by patent number, patent owner, or INN. Information is entered into the register on the basis of requests of patent owners, as well as information available at EAPO.