Pharma pins growth on protecting its creations

A pharmaceutical company in Yichang said its rapid development since its establishment in 2001 comes from its dedication to intellectual property management.

"Of all industries, the pharmaceutical industry is the most closely associated with intellectual property protection," said Li Jie, chairman of Yichang Humanwell Pharmaceutical Co.

The company is a State-designated manufacturer of and a research and development base for narcotic analgesics.

In 2009, the company established a department to handle intellectual property rights and created an intellectual property system to increase its number of patent applications and spur innovation.

Humanwell Pharmaceutical has focused on developing a series of products with proprietary technologies and has set up cooperative partnerships with many universities nationwide to drive innovation. Its products have a 62 percent share of the domestic narcotic market.

Over the past five years, it has secured technical cooperation measures with foreign companies to "inject new force into its patent commercialization", Li said.

In recent years Humanwell has grown steadily in the number of its patent and trademark applications.

It currently has 117 trademarks, including 13 registered overseas in countries such as the US, Germany, Canada, India and Chile. It also has 62 patent applications, 45 of which were approved.