Drug Discovery, Diagnostic, and therapeutic trends on Mpox: A patent landscape

As of early 2022, Mpox has resurged and expanded globally, posing a new threat to global health. In close to 110 countries, 87,000 confirmed cases and 112 deaths have been reported as on April 18, 2023. Considering the current pandemic crisis and future developments, it is imperative to understand and characterize the global patent scenario of Mpox. In biological sciences, patents are often promising indicators of technological knowledge production. This patent landscape analysis is the first to provide a solid intellectual foundation for the ongoing development of diagnostic measures, therapeutic drug agents, and vaccines for Mpox. Our search encompassed several patent databases to identify patents related to Mpox, including PatSeer, Google patents, lens.org, Espacenet, and Patentscope. Patenting trends are discussed, and a Whitespace analysis is carried out in this paper, suggesting the knowledge gaps and promising areas for future research on Mpox. This study could serve as an epicentre for provoking ideas and mitigation strategies.