Clarivate Analytics: Global Alzheimer's Disease Research and Drug Development Progress Report

The report shows that with the intensification of global aging, the incidence of Alzheimer's disease has been rising steadily. The pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease is complex and its characteristics are unclear, which brings huge challenges to basic research. The report pointed out that neuroscience has always been the primary research field of Alzheimer's disease. Subsequently, the proportion of research papers in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology showed a significant upward trend. Since 2005 , the research field has shown rapid diversified development, and scholars have begun to pay more attention to the results of the humanistic perspective and social care. Countless scientists around the world are still working tirelessly and actively exploring in basic research in this field.

The report "Unremitting Exploration to Protect Memory - Global Alzheimer's Disease Research and Drug Development Progress" is compiled based on data from Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science™ citation database platform, Cortellis Competitive Intelligence™ (CCI , Cortellis Competitive Intelligence Database ™) , Drug Research Advisor™ (DRA , Drug Research Advisor - Target Drugability ) , DRG Database, Derwent World Patents Index™ (DWPI , Derwent World Patents Index ™) and Derwent Innovation™ (DI , Derwent Innovation Platform ™) .

Key findings of the report

Basic research:

■ The share of Alzheimer's research in global scientific output has increased since the late 1980s , but it still lags far behind other diseases such as oncology. The discipline-normalized citation impact of such research has been above the global average since 1980 .

■ In terms of the number of papers produced, the United States has far more relevant research than any other country or region in the world. Some countries and regions in Asia started research relatively late, but the growth rate of relevant output is relatively fast. For example, mainland China ranks first among the top ten countries in terms of output with an annual compound growth rate of 26.43% .

■ The top ten institutions in the world that have produced the most Alzheimer's disease research are all from Europe and the United States. In China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has produced 1,176 papers in the past four decades, making it the Asian institution that has produced the most papers in this field.

■ Eight of the top ten funds that have funded the most papers on Alzheimer's disease research are government funds, and two are from companies. Different funding agencies in different countries focus on different directions in funding research in this field.

Drug development:

■ Currently, there are 26 drugs on the market for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in the world , including GV-971 (mannose oligosaccharide), a first-in-class innovative drug conditionally approved by the China National Medical Products Administration ( NMPA ) in 2019 .

■ The patents of marketed Alzheimer's disease drugs have generally expired, and most drugs have been replaced by generic drugs. The industry is full of expectations for new drugs that will soon be launched on the market.

■ From a regional perspective, the research and development enthusiasm for Alzheimer's disease is mainly distributed in the United States, Japan and China. American companies are the main force in the global research of Alzheimer's disease drugs, followed by Chinese and Japanese companies. 

■ Currently, there are 795 drugs in the active stage in the global R&D pipeline for Alzheimer's disease , and 273 clinical trials are underway , but only 34 of them are in Phase III clinical trials . 

Patent protection:

■ Patent family applications in the field of Alzheimer's disease have generally been flat since 2000 and have declined since 2008. Compared with the strong growth trend of global patent applications since 2010 , patent activities in this technical field are relatively lagging, reflecting the lack of active R&D activities in this technical field.

■ Nearly half of the inventions in the field of Alzheimer's disease were produced in the United States, and there were also a large number of inventions in countries and regions such as Germany, the United Kingdom, mainland China, and Japan. Although the United States is the country with the largest number of original inventions, its rate of decline is also very fast. Only Japan's inventions in this field are on the rise.

■ Data shows that 66% of global patent applications come from enterprises, and academic / government research institutions account for 22% . In China, the number of patent applications from academic / government research institutions is roughly the same as that from commercial entities, which is higher than the proportion of academic / government research institutions worldwide.

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