Patents and sanitary registration of serogroup B meningococcal vaccine in Brazil: basic aspects for biological products regulation and control from rice bran

Abstract

Vaccines are important instruments for public health. Sanitary registration is an important tool for the national regulatory authorities to control the medicines use and it is the basic source of information for the National Sanitary Surveillance System – NRAs. For meningococcal meningitis, caused by Neisseria meningitidis (Nm), many vaccines were developed against serogroups A, C. W135, and Y using the capsular polysaccharides. Considering that the serogroup B polysaccharide is poorly immunogenic in human, other vaccines strategies were tried. This study aimed at identifying the applied patents for meningitis B antigens during the period from 1990 to 2005, and these were compared to the registered products. The European Patent Office and the National Institute for Industrial Propriety data basis were used to survey the patents request. Several patents requested the antigens safekeeping, which are included into the registered vaccine, and it does not characterize an innovation. The majority of the patents depositories belong to multinational companies and the Brazilian institutions should put in practice the process of requesting the patent for their research products.