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Covid-19: the pandemic boosts French innovation, yet lagging behind on vaccines

2021-03-16T07:25:27.495Z


The number of European patents filed by French companies is increasing for the first time since 2017. A phenomenon that


If France has not succeeded in finding a vaccine against Covid-19, the period has nevertheless been conducive to inventions ... According to the European Patent Office (EPO), in a study to be published on Tuesday, France is resuming with innovation: slowing down since 2017, the number of patents increased by 3.1% over the year as a whole compared to 2019, reaching 10,554 filings.

Isn't that a coincidence?

The Covid-19 has allowed an explosion of health-related patents.

"It is difficult to establish a direct link between these patent applications and Covid-19, but we know that the pandemic launched a race in research and development from the start of the crisis, on masks, respirators, drugs, vaccines… ”, explains Yann Manière, chief economist at the EPO.

Across Europe, innovations in health have resulted in a surge in patent filings.

This is also the case for France, with requests in the context of medical technologies (+ 17.5%, 576 requests) and in pharmaceutical products (+ 21.8%, 472 requests), “which are positioned in the top 5 of the most dynamic sectors in France ”, in 2nd and 5th position.

"At the European level, France is also each time the top 3 of the most innovative countries, whether for medical technologies (3rd), pharmaceutical products (2nd) or biotechnologies (3rd)", specifies also the EPO.

French companies do not have to be ashamed of their European competitors.

In the pharmaceutical products niche, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) ranks, according to the number of patents filed, ahead of Merck, which has abandoned its vaccine projects against Covid-19, and Johnson & Johnson, the laboratory behind the Janssen vaccine.

Sanofi, although behind on its Covid-19 vaccine, remains at the top of the ranking.

An explosion of patents in 2021 and 2022

France is thus one of the rare countries of the European Union, along with Finland and Italy, to see its number of patents filed with the EPO increase in 2020. “This can be explained by two factors: the an increase in patents in the health sector and a continuation, which cannot be found elsewhere, on innovation in transport, whether in the automobile or in aviation, despite the crisis ", exhibits Yann Manière.

However, 2020 could only be the beginning of a longer movement: the time to learn about Covid-19, to apprehend it, then to understand it, many months have passed in 2020 ... With a year 2021 where the epidemic is still present, innovations as well as the number of patents should continue to grow in 2021 and 2022. Yann Manière reminds us: “The patent is only the very beginning of an invention's journey, we have to wait for it to materialize and for trials to be carried out.

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Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-03-16

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