Artificial intelligence influences every aspect of our lives and creates revolutionary effects in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in many other sectors.
Turkey
Intellectual Property
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Artificial intelligence influences every aspect of our lives and
creates revolutionary effects in the pharmaceutical industry as
well as in many other sectors. From DeepMind’s AlphaGo success
to Tempus’ personalized approaches to cancer treatment,
AI-enabled innovations offer not only scientific achievements, but
also wide-ranging advantages such as operational efficiency, cost
reduction and risk reduction. However, this technological leap also
raises critical questions about the traditional processes of the
pharmaceutical industry and the patent system.
According to data from the Tufts Drug Development Research
Center, it takes about 10 years for a drug to be developed and put
on the market, and it costs $ 2.558 billion. In particular,
clinical trials account for the majority of this cost, while the
success rate is below 10%. These challenges cause the
pharmaceutical industry to look for more sustainable and rapid
solutions.
The discovery of new compounds and molecular design that takes
months with traditional methods can be reduced to weeks thanks to
artificial intelligence algorithms; clinical trial processes are
completed in 20% less time and at a lower cost. For example,
BenevolentAI has demonstrated this potential by leveraging
artificial intelligence platforms in the rapid discovery of a drug
such as Baricitinib in the treatment of COVID-19. It should be
emphasized that the contributions of artificial intelligence to the
pharmaceutical industry are not limited only to cost and time
savings. That is because artificial intelligence also provides a
great transformation in areas such as customization of the
treatment process, detection of side effects and analysis of
patient data. IBM Healthcare’s use of artificial intelligence
in clinical trial matching is a good example of this.
The increase in the use of artificial intelligence in the
pharmaceutical industry also raises new discussions in terms of
patent protection and legal grounds; because although the
Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (”IP Code”) regulates
that computer programs are not patentable, there is no regulation
in the IP Code on how artificial intelligence-supported inventions
will be evaluated in this context.
On the other hand, since Turkiye has been a party to the
European Patent Convention since 2000, the European Patent
Office’s position on the patentability of artificial
intelligence-supported pharmaceutical inventions has been binding
on Turkey. Because as one of the conditions for membership in the
Convention, Turkiye accepts and undertakes that European Patents
decided to be registered by the European Patent Office are deemed
to be a national patent registered in Turkiye.
The European Patent Office adheres to conventional criteria when
evaluating the patentability of artificial intelligence-supported
inventions. For example, using the Problem-Solving approach, it is
evaluated whether an artificial intelligence invention has novelty
and is not obvious to those skilled in the art. However, whether
the problem-solution approach can always be applied in terms of
patentability of inventions arising in artificial intelligence and
artificial intelligence-supported pharmaceutical development
processes is subject to controversy.
Artificial intelligence has taken on a groundbreaking role in
the pharmaceutical industry in terms of cost, speed and efficiency.
However, this transformation requires a reinterpretation of the
traditional patent system and a clearer drawing of the ethical and
legal boundaries of technology. The pharmaceutical industry’s
ability to keep human expertise at the center while embracing the
advantages offered by artificial intelligence will be the key to
future success. An industry that can achieve this balance will lead
not only to more effective treatments for patients, but also to
sustainable solutions for the global healthcare system.
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