In the run-up to World Cancer Day on Sunday 4 February, the European Patent Office (EPO) published a study on Thursday 1 February showing that innovation in the fight against cancer surged by 70% between 2015 and 2021.
According to the European Cancer Information System (ECIS), 31% of men and 25% of women in the European Union can be expected to be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 75. More than five million lives have been saved in the EU thanks to inventions in the field of oncology (see EUROPE 13340/12).
The ‘Patents and Innovation against Cancer’ study - https://aeur.eu/f/ao8 - aims to provide decision-makers and innovators with information on patents relating to technologies for fighting cancer worldwide. It describes the most recent advances and where they have taken place.
The report states that more than 140,000 cancer inventions have been disclosed to the public in patent documents over the last 50 years.
The study is complemented by an EPO open-access online platform - https://aeur.eu/f/ao9 - which provides simpler access to innovators in the field via the technical information contained in their patents, using predefined searches of patent databases. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)