Antidepressants Drugs and Addiction Treatment: A development view and a technological patent landscape of drugs and compositions

Background: According to the World Health Organization, about 76-85% of subjects in low- and middle-income countries suffer with a mental disorder. From them the most prevalent are anxiety and depression ones, with an increase in the number of cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Antidepressants are drugs used to treat depression, but they are also used to treat subjects addicted to drugs. The development of new technologies/drugs/compositions is important for promoting access not only to drugs, but better drugs. The present study aims: 1. To carry out a survey of drugs under active development used to depression and dependency treatment (at least); 2. To evaluate, through the patent landscape, the patent documents filed in the past 10 years related to this class of drugs (antidepressants) in the context of technological scenario and 3. To promote a discussion about drugs used as antidepressants and to dependency treatment (at least). Results: The search provided a scenario of a small number of drugs used for depression and drug dependency under active development, the highest development phases, the main mechanisms of action and the antidepressants used as antiaddictives. The patent landscape retrieved 2067 applied documents filed over the last 10 years, showing that China leads in the number of deposits of these drugs/compositions/methods to treat depression (with 1758 applications) made by Chinese Institutes and Universities, followed by the United States (291 applications) and Japan (193 applications). The patents’ search also allowed us to evaluate the documents which the claims addressed (at least) to the treatment of depression and as antiaddictive. Conclusion: The analysis of under active development drugs presented those used as antidepressants and to the treatment of substances dependency in different stages of development, including the drugs in clinical studies. Indeed, the applications’ analysis on antidepressants has generated information about the technologies involved, as well as allowing the evaluation of the applications that are also promising for the treatment of addiction and depression.