TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a document creation assistance server and a document creation assistance method.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, for example in a pharmaceutical company, a chemist synthesizes a compound, i.e., a novel chemical substance, and carries out experiments for determining medicinal effects of the compound on a daily basis. The chemist describes the experiments on a lab notebook. Such a lab notebook once was made of paper; however, an electronic lab notebook is used in recent years (see, for example, Patent Document 1). After the experiments, a compound proven to have medicinal effects is subjected to a patent application in order to obtain the right for the substance. Upon filing of a patent application, documents such as a specification must be drafted. For example, a document creation assistance device that assists with creation of a document for patent application is disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Translation of PCT Application), Publication No. 2008-516351

Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2007-149087

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

In a specification of a patent application related to a compound, all compounds generated in the course of synthesis must be specified in the order of synthesis. However, since there are various synthesis pathways and the lab notebook includes an enormous amount of data, it has been cumbersome to identify the adequate synthesis pathway from the lab notebook. In this regard, efficient acquisition of information required for drafting an experiment example in a specification etc. has been awaited.

An object of the present invention is to provide a document creation assistance server and a document creation assistance method that enable efficient acquisition of information required for drafting a specification etc., and generation of a document on the basis of the information thus obtained.

Means for Solving the Problems

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a document creation assistance server (1) for assisting with creation of a document that serves as an Example, includes: an identification information accepting means (12) that accepts identification information that identifies a final product generated through synthesis of a plurality of compounds; a chemical equation obtaining means (14) that obtains a chemical equation for generating the final product corresponding to the identification information accepted by the identification information accepting means, with reference to electronic lab notebook data that electrically describes experiments related to the synthesis of the compounds; and a document generating means (17) that generates a document containing the chemical equation obtained by the chemical equation obtaining means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the document creation assistance server (1) according to the first aspect, the chemical equation obtaining means (14) may obtain the chemical equation included in a synthesis pathway between a source material and the final product.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to the first or second aspect may further include a condition accepting means (13) that accepts a condition for obtaining the chemical equation, in which the chemical equation obtaining means (14) may obtain the chemical equation according to the condition. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the document creation assistance server (1) according to the third aspect, the condition may relate to at least one of: yield; yielded amount; chemist responsible for synthesis; and the number of compounds included in the synthesis pathway. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to any one of the first to fourth aspects may further include: an editing means (15) that edits the compound included in the chemical equation obtained by the chemical equation obtaining means (14), so as to correspond to a nature of the compound; and a chemical equation outputting means (16) that outputs a chemical equation edited by the editing means. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the document creation assistance server (1) according to the fifth aspect, the editing means (15) may edit the compound such that a looped compound, which indicates that a pre-reaction compound and a post-reaction compound are identical, is identifiable. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to the fifth aspect may further include a compound checking means (15) that checks the compound included in the chemical equation obtained by the chemical equation obtaining means (14) against a compound database (51) that stores compound information, in which the editing means (15) may edit the compound on the basis of a checking result from the compound checking means. According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to any one of the fifth to seventh aspects, may further include a notebook checking means (15) that checks a description in the electronic lab notebook data related to each compound included in the chemical equation obtained by the chemical equation obtaining means (14) against a theoretical value obtained from a structural formula of each compound, in which the editing means (15) may edit the compound on the basis of a checking result from the notebook checking means. According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to any one of the fifth to eighth aspects, may further include a selection accepting means (21) that accepts a selection of the compound included in the chemical equation output from the chemical equation outputting means (16); and an operation list outputting means (21) that outputs a list of possible operations in accordance with a nature of the compound accepted by the selection accepting means. According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the document creation assistance server (1) according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, may further include a template storage unit (33) that stores a template (80) with a tag being embedded, in which the document generating means (17) may generate the document through a process of embedding the chemical equation obtained by the chemical equation obtaining means (14) into the tag in the template stored in the template storage unit. According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the document creation assistance server (1) according to any one of the first to tenth aspects, the document generating means (17) may convert the chemical equation into image data and generate the document containing the image data thus converted. According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, a method of assisting with creation of a document that serves as an Example using a computer (1) includes: accepting, by the computer, identification information that identifies a final product generated through synthesis of a plurality of compounds; obtaining, by the computer, a chemical equation for generating the final product corresponding to the identification information accepted, with reference to electronic lab notebook data that electrically describes experiments related to the synthesis of the compounds; and generating, by the computer, a document including the chemical equation obtained.

Effects of the Invention

According to the present invention, a document creation assistance server and a document creation assistance method can be provided that enable efficient acquisition of information required for drafting a specification etc., and generation of a document on the basis of the information thus obtained.

