US Patent Office 2016 Humanity Awards Go To Health-Related Inventions

The winners of the 2016 Patents for Humanity Award of the United States Patent and Trademark Office this year are recognised for providing global disease solutions. The inventions relate to malaria, vaccines, a life-threatening pregnancy complication, and meningitis.

The four winners are: the US Food and Drug Administration for an improved meningitis vaccine; the Global Good Fund at Intellectual Ventures for a cooler which can preserve vaccines for over a month without outside power source; Case Western Reserve University for creating a low-cost, accurate malaria detection device using magnets and lasers that allows better diagnosis and treatment; and GestVision Inc. for developing a quick, simple diagnosis test for preeclampsia, a potentially life threatening pregnancy complication, for use in developing regions.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Alere Inc. for developing diagnostic assays for rapid and early HIV diagnosis at the point of care in low-resource settings, and Sanofi for researching new malaria drug candidates with shorter, simpler treatment regiments that can potentially curve drug resistance.

According to a USPTO press release, the Patents for Humanity programme, launched by the USPTO in February 2012, is intended to promote “game-changing innovations that solve long-standing development challenges.”

“The award is the USPTO’s top honor for recognizing patent owners and licensees who use game-changing technology to meet global humanitarian challenges. In addition to being recognized for their work, winners also receive accelerated processing of select matters at the USPTO,” the release said.