Respect for Intellectual Property

Main Concept

As a pharmaceutical company, Sumitomo Pharma considers the active management of intellectual property to be an essential part of its business strategy. Our basic policy is to develop our own robust intellectual portfolio, while at the same time respecting the intellectual property rights of others.

Comprehensive Approach to Intellectual Property--from Research Results to Business Development

We file patent applications covering inventions and products created at each laboratory to secure Sumitomo Pharma's leading position. We also actively file patent applications covering inventions created in cooperation with outside research institutions. The Company currently has about 1,600 patents/patent applications filed worldwide. We especially focus on filing patent applications covering inventions created at the initial stage of research by cooperating with each laboratory and Intellectual Property Department to acquire effective patents and rights.

To comprehensively protect each of our products, we work to build a patent portfolio by not only applying for substance patents but also filing applications covering uses, manufacturing processes and formulations. In addition, we are working to establish intellectual property in the regenerative medicine/cell therapy field in order to promote the business. This approach ensures that our intellectual assets actively contribute to business development.

Furthermore, in view of our global business development, we need to protect our products using intellectual properties in countries around the world. For that purpose, our Intellectual Property Department organizes Patent Committee meetings with heads of research and development-related departments. The subjects at Patent Committee meetings include sharing of intellectual property information on individual products and discussions of future intellectual property strategies.