Using Patents to Cure Cancer?
by John Roberts on September 27, 2016
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the winners of the USPTO Cancer Moonshot Challenge. The challenge was launched by the USPTO in August as part of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, which aims to speed up patient-focused cancer treatments, increase patient access to clinical trials and therapies, and align public-private policies investments to improve the ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage.
The Cancer Moonshot Challenge enlisted the public's help to leverage the USPTO's intellectual property data, often an early indicator of meaningful research and development, and combine it with other economic and funding statistics. Using data sets released through the USPTO Developer Hub, participants used analytic tools, processes and complimentary data sets to build rich visualizations of intellectual property data, which can illuminate trend lines for new insights.
"The USPTO recognizes that by enlisting the public's assistance through the USPTO Cancer Moonshot Challenge, we can identify new and creative ways to fight cancer and work towards breakthroughs in treatment," said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Michelle K. Lee. "I'm inspired by how private companies, universities, institutions and foundations, have all stepped up to collaborate and contribute. By harnessing the power of patent data, we are changing how medical and research data can be shared and used to reach new breakthroughs."
Following is a list of the Cancer Moonshot Challenge Winners:
1st Place: Dolcera visualized how the genetics and epidemiology of cancer relate to levels of research funding, patenting, and clinical testing. Collecting and combining valuable data from multiple sources, Dolcera provided engaging visualizations that offer clear and meaningful insights regarding cancer research priorities and breakthrough technologies in treatment and diagnostics.
2nd Place: Booz Allen Hamilton and Omnity constructed and visualized networks of cancer-related patents and federal research grants based on NIH co-funding and the degree of linguistic similarity between patent documents. The solution depicts how the effects of one federal research grant are multiplied through the dissemination of knowledge and discoveries in an interconnected community of researchers.
3rd Place: Thomson Reuters and Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center illustrated how the epidemiology of cancer mortality relates to patenting and funding timelines. The interactive visualization provides insight regarding funding, research, and innovation in certain types of cancer.
Following is a list of the Cancer Moonshot Challenge Honorable Mentions:
Honorable Mention: D. Dzamba, A. Haiduk, Z. Kulsariyeva, A. Leszczynska, L. Ramasamy, J. Smid, O. Smrz, and H. Taborda illustrated how the percentage of cancer-related patents that have resulted in FDA approval has changed over time, as part of a series of trend analyses. It was judged the best among a series of submissions that emphasized visualizing the USPTO curated data set.
Honorable Mention: Matthew Whitehead and Daniel Johnson use neural networks and linguistics to visualize and compare networks of patent documents centered on individual cancer-related concepts. It is honored for the unique and innovative methodology applied.
The USPTO, in tandem with other Moonshot Task Force partners, will look at further ways to use the findings and build on data focused efforts that the initiative has unleashed. These findings will empower the federal government—as well as the medical, research, and data communities—to make more precise funding and policy decisions based on the commercialization lifecycle of the most promising treatments, and maximize U.S. competitiveness in cancer investments.
The Cancer Moonshot Challenge comes on the heels of the USPTO's Patents 4 Patients program, which was launched in July and aims to cut in half the time it takes to review patent applications in cancer therapy. For more information about the Moonshot Initiative, visit the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force webpage.
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