Patent Bibliometric Analysis of Weight Loss Products in China

OBJECTIVE To analyze the status and research development trends of patent applications in weight loss drugs and products in China. METHODS Used the method of bibliometrics, analyzed the patent application in terms of time, region, applicant, legal status, technical hotspot and main applicant by retrieving the relevant patent literatures from the patent database in China. RESULTS The number of patents regards to domestic weight loss products has been increasing year by year since 1999. The applications from domestic enterprises and research institutions accounted for 56.78% and foreign applications accounted for 43.22%. The applications from the top six provinces in China accounted for 32.42% of all applications. Among the top 20 applicants, domestic research institutes and enterprise accounted for 72.11% and 25.26% respectively. CONCLUSION The data show that local patent applications for weight-loss drugs and products are mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong and Zhejiang province, and research institutes contributed most of applications. There still have a certain gap in R&D competence between domestic enterprises and enterprises of other developed countries like the United States and Japan. Domestic enterprises can consider to collaborate with research institutes to improve their R&D competence in weight loss drugs and products.