Insights

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PharmaPatents

USPTO to Take a Piercing Look at National Stage Applications

USPTO’s PIER pilot program adds a new “confirm‑to‑proceed” step for selected U.S. national stage applications. The PIER program may increase costs, cause delays, and reduce patent term adjustment (PTA). The USPTO may benefit by reducing its workload without refunding examination fees.

Patent analysis is increasingly shaping AI-driven target and drug candidate selection

Pun et al.’s recent review entitled “Target identification and assessment in the era of AI” in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery maps how artificial intelligence (AI) is widening target identification through multi-omics integration, knowledge graphs, and foundation models.