Therapeutic approaches to respiratory diseases excluding asthma: Trends from the patent literature 1997-2000

This review analyses those patents published during the period January 1997 to August 2000 that claimed methods of treating diverse respiratory diseas es. These were used to assess progress in developing novel therapeutic appr oaches to the treatment of bronchitis, emphysema, adult respiratory distres s syndrome (ARDS), cystic fibrosis (CF) and pulmonary fibrosis. The approac hes to the diseases are assessed separately and corporate interest in each condition is analyses. An analysis of corporate interest in treating respir atory diseases other than asthma is also included.