2021 was a year of unprecedented success for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, with the top 200 highest-revenue pharmaceuticals generating combined sales of $587 billion – a 17.6% increase from 2020.
Working with top-selling pharmaceuticals
With the global rollout of vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Comirnaty®, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and Moderna’s Spikevax®, made up 2 of the 3 best-selling pharmaceuticals last year. COVID-19 therapies REGEN-COV® and Veklury® were also catapulted into the top 25 rankings.
Mewburn Ellis is very proud to have been directly involved in building, managing and defending the portfolios of intellectual property rights for a large proportion of these most important drugs. We have worked on 19 of the 50 top-selling pharmaceuticals of 2021, having aggregate sales of $146 billion. This includes 4 out of the top 10, which alone saw sales in excess of $80 billion in 2021.
Go-to firm for blockbuster monoclonal antibodies
Among these best-sellers, Mewburn Ellis continues to enjoy its reputation as a go-to firm for blockbuster monoclonal antibodies, and have worked for many years to develop and help protect the patent portfolios for Herceptin®, Humira®, Avastin®, Rituxan®, Lucentis®, Xolair®, Perjeta®, Yervoy® and Opdivo®, among others. See here for more information about our work in the antibody and ADC space.
Supporting companies with their patent term extensions & exclusivity strategies globally
Mewburn Ellis has also co-ordinated the European or UK SPC portfolios for 13% of the top 100 bestselling pharmaceuticals of 2021. Our Speciality Pharma team have considerable experience navigating the complex commercial and regulatory landscape of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
The 2021 pharmaceutical sales figures demonstrate that Mewburn Ellis continues to be a leading firm for managing the intellectual property rights for some of the highest-profile, best-selling drugs worldwide.
About the authors
This blog was co-authored by David Brooks and Adam Gregory.
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David Brooks
Darena is a trainee patent attorney working as part of our engineering and ICT team.
During her undergraduate studies at Durham University, she undertook several work experiences which were all related to different aspects of intellectual property. She interned at two patent law firms and worked for a UK-based force-sensing solutions company. She analysed key aspects of the patent landscape related to force-sensing technologies for the purpose of Research & Development under the direct supervision of the company’s CTO.
