Monday 13 Oct

The pharmaceutical and life science publishing industries have seen and will continue to see big changes over the next few years. Reallocation of library budgets, refocusing of R&D activities, generics and increased transparency in one; open access mandates, text-mining as a research requirement, and an explosion in mobile internet access globally in the other. There is also likely to be further consolidation and collaboration between "big beasts" of both industries as they adjust to changing revenues due to the growth of generics and open access. Both industries are also aware of the continued growth of innovation-led start-ups and disruptive technologies. Technological changes at the interface of pharma and STM Publishing: Mobile, Tablet and now wearable hardware such as Glass make things look even more interesting going forward. What does all this, and more, mean for the generation, processing, delivery and use of scientific content for the pharma and biotech industries?

The valuation of intellectual property is becoming an increasingly important component of realising return on R&D investment, overall business strategy and IP portfolio management. Like other forms of property, the value of intellectual property is determined by what the buyer is prepared to pay for its perceived value, and what the seller is willing to accept. This is ultimately decided by negotiation. However, there is much that can be done to substantiate the value in support of the position of either the seller or the buyer. From the seller’s viewpoint, being able to place the IP accurately on the competitive landscape is critical to establishing how important the IP is, and hence its perceived market value. On the buyer’s side, the accurate assessment of the market position held by the IP on the technology landscape against competition will help determine whether this is a blocking technology, or whether it can ultimately be worked around. This is a combination of science and art. There are also special considerations to be factored in for the chemical technology space. In all cases, IP information and analysis tools play a central role in providing support for valuation of IP. This presentation will use a case study approach to examine the issues and provide insight into how organizations can more accurately assess the importance of their IP, and hence the current and potential market value of that IP.

Cited references and citing references link patent documents through time and by subject. As citations do not depend on text search, they can be particularly useful for identifying patents from the Asian languages. Using forward and backward citations can enhance subject retrieval and provide added competitor information. Tools for searching and viewing patent citations, both forwards and backwards are now standard on most commercial patent information platforms. An overview of these will be presented. When using patent citations for search and analysis, it’s important to understand their origin. I will start by going back to basics and present an overview of the different types of patent citations, and how to use them wisely.

The pressures of pharmaceutical research and development demand increasing efficiency from scientists. High-quality decisions must be made faster and encompass all available information. At the same time there is a growing desire to better utilize the multi-billion dollar research investment recorded in laboratory notebooks and bioassay databases. Key values for data integration in a data exploration environment include gathering data from disparate E-notebooks and bioassay databases into a single searchable “virtual” system and increased discoverability by accessing data through a system designed for exploration. Key benefits are better chemistry decisions through easier access to broader data and reduced time for preparing patent filings. The ability to interlink in-house and reported assay data with in-house and published chemistry provides a data-rich environment for developing insights and predictive models. We will discuss our experience with integrating information from journals, patents, bio-assay databases, and E-lab notebooks to address these needs.

A new knowledge-based approach to the de novo design of synthetically feasible molecules is described. The method is based on specifically designed transform libraries abstracted from reaction databases. The structure generation process is based on conceptual chemistry and the degree of complexity introduced in the new structures can be modulated using specific parameters. Furthermore, this new system allows the integration of the results obtained in different workflows to calculate/predict other important physico-chemical properties of the new suggested molecules.

The patent literature has historically been complex and inaccessible to searches required for effective IP management and maintenance of a competitive position, particularly when it comes to chemical structure information. The availability of raw patent text feeds in a structured form have allowed the application of text-to-structure and image-to-structure conversion techniques. The problem then became one of applying this solution across massive data sets in an accurate and scalable manner to deliver a turnkey patent informatics system with automatically extracted, and searchable chemical structures. SureChem, an advanced cloud application, uses a tournament of methods to achieve higher coverage and accuracy than any single approach. This product was launched and licensed by a user community with a freemium business model. Latterly, user feedback and market shifts indicated a need to link biological data into patents too (sequences, genes, targets, diseases, etc). This created an opportunity to transition SureChem to EMBL-EBI, a public organisation with the remit of data dissemination and sharing, and deep experience of biodata, including the large ChEMBL database of Structure Activity Relationship Data. In 2014 SureChem became SureChEMBL. The presentation will review the development of SureChem, discuss the marketplace for patent informatics, and look ahead to future development plans for SureChEMBL.

At the Smart Data Innovation Lab in Karlsruhe, Germany, various partners from industry and academia are committed to revealing the secrets locked in Big Data to tackle society’s most demanding challenges. The SDIL provides cutting-edge research and analytical capabilities for large data sets from industry and public sources, and facilitates the flow of information across conventional borders of the various economic sectors to help build competitive advantages. “At the Smart Data Innovation Lab we will have a variety of opportunities to learn from the best: be it in collaborating with leading-edge big data institutions like KIT or as a member of the four data innovation communities (Industry 4.0, Energy, Smart Cities or Personalised Medicine), where we can jointly discuss relevant smart data use cases with academic institutions and industry partners. Designed in close collaboration between industry and research, the SDIL is operating at the KIT with the financial and operational backing of some of Germany’s major corporations including Bayer, Bosch, Infineon, Microsoft Germany, SAP, Siemens, Trumpf and Software AG. A particular focus is on the promotion of start-up companies that can benefit from the contacts to established providers and offer completely new solutions and services based on the data provided. The scientists have access to real company data stored securely on the platform within the framework of defined projects. The analysis, specification, and structuring of specific data sets and the detection of anomalies facilitate closer collaboration with the respective business partners, in turn making knowledge and technology transfers possible faster than ever before.

Vast amounts of new information and data are generated every day through scientific research. More and more of this data is stored in rapidly growing, but siloed databases, creating “Big Data” challenges. New technologies such as text and data mining make it possible to efficiently search and improve knowledge by applying analytics across these data sources. Research-intensive companies in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry are exploring the use of text and data mining (TDM) techniques to glean new insights from patents, clinical data, scientific literature, and other data sources. These insights are seen as critical to accelerating the process of drug and product discovery. As these researchers leverage TDM techniques, obtaining easy, centralized access to TDM-ready full-text content from multiple publishers becomes more and more important. What will be the future role of TDM in 2014 and beyond? What are the major TDM trends and what solutions are companies looking for to accelerate their R&D efforts? Based on the experience gathered in a text and data mining pilot program successfully run by RightsDirect’s parent company Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) in 2013, RightsDirect’s General Manager Kim Zwollo will give an overview of current market needs, options and trends in Text and Data Mining. Using CCC’s TDM solution as an example, the presentation outlines critical success factors in technology and business models that need to be part of a comprehensive approach to text and data mining.

As companies become more information-focussed, the role of the corporate information service has changed to capture and enable this trend. Information groups still provide access to literature and patent searching but this is largely done by end users now, freeing up the information professionals to look at how to be more proactive and add value to the information provided – to become a resource rather than a service. This presentation will outline the role of Technology Forecasting & Information (TFI), the information resource for Johnson Matthey. As a corporate resource, TFI works closely with scientific, commercial and financial teams throughout Johnson Matthey to ensure that the decision makers have the knowledge they require to make informed decisions. This presentation will highlight how we have changed the way we work, the sort of work we do, and will show how we use information to highlight trends, identify opportunities, and foster innovation. It will also address the challenges of Big Data, copyright and global sources of information.

This talk describes lessons learned from a 30-year career in Chemical Information Science, key influences and motivations, and signposts to the future for what we may expect. Work has changed from implicit knowledge of where to find information in books, through data stores, to the internet, and beyond to unimagined futures. The talk references the rise and fall of the UK pharmaceutical industry as a place to work, in line with changes to the provision of information to scientists. The nature of work is described in relation to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and hopefully provides hope for the future of chemical information for the next generation.

Patent information is valuable when it comes to evaluating specific companies in terms of technology and innovation. But this information alone is sometimes not enough: a broad patent portofolio doesn’t equate with a healthy company; an absence of patents doesn’t equate with a poor company; … What other types of information are available to help us understand or predict a company strategy? The goal of this presentation is both to highlight that it is possible to broaden the work scope of the Information Analyst, and that each type of information has limitation.

What will be the role of Informartion Professionals ? For years the Confederacy of European patent Information User Group has been working on the Certification for Patent Information Professionals. The certification for patent information specialists is an indispensable tool for guaranteeing that the patent searching profession is able to continue meeting the quality standards of the European industry, for providing recognition for people working as patent information specialists and for new entrants in the profession. In this presentation, I will explain what the Certification project is about, I will give a status update and review the plan for the future. As always, the role of Providers in this project is very important to ensure the right organizational support.