Innovation in Small-Molecule-Druggable Chemical Space: Where are the Initial Modulators of New Targets Published?

It
is well-established that the number of publications of novel
small molecule modulators, and their associated targets, has increased
over the years. This work focuses on publishing trends over the years
with a particular focus on the comparison between patents and scientific
literature which is accessible via the ChEMBL and GOSTAR databases.
More precisely, the patents and scientific literature associated with
bioactive molecules and their target annotations have been compared
to identify where novelty (in the meaning of the first modulator of
a protein target) originated from. Comparing the published date of
the first small molecule modulator published in literature and patents
for a particular target (with either identical or different structure)
shows that modulators are usually published in both scientific literature
and in patents (45%), or in scientific literature alone (51%), but
rarely in patents only. When looking at the time when first modulators
are published in both sources, 65% of the time they are disseminated
in literature first. Finally, when analyzing just the novel small
molecule modulators, regardless of the protein targets they have been
published with, those structures representing novel chemistry tend
to be published in patents first 61% of the time.