Asian Journal Of Social Pharmacy

Objective To explore the current state of biopharmaceutical innovation in Africa by analyzing patent data related to biopharmaceutical products in African countries. Methods Based on patent data, simple descriptive statistical methods were used to analyze the trend of patent applications, the geographical distribution of patents, and the distribution of applicants in the pharmaceutical field in Africa. Besides, Excel software was used to draw charts to visualize statistical information. Results and Conclusion According to the result, a large number of patents has been granted in these countries and the number is steadily rising each year. From the figure below, we can see that the largest number of patents was granted to Morocco in 2014 with a total number of 613 patents followed by Tunisia with 315 patents, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) with 124 patents, South Africa with 106 and Mozambique with 1 patent based on data availability (IncoPat Global Patent Search Database). It was observed that, as patents were granted, the number of applications filed on this continent increased. The largest number of patents has been recorded by Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa. Patent applications in Morocco increased fast with an average annual growth of 7.3%. The increase in patent applications is due to improved research infrastructure and enhanced research activities, which shows the importance of biopharmaceutical innovation in the continent.