In the "Top 10 Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Cases of 2024" announced by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the invalidation case of the patent "Use of Degarelix in the Preparation of Medicament for Treating Metastatic Stage Prostate Cancer" has drawn industry attention due to its involvement in the innovation of examination standards in the field of precision medicine. Recently, Ms. Yitong Cui, a NTD patent attorney, was interviewed by "China Intellectual Property News", an authoritative intellectual property publication, to provide an in-depth interpretation of the industry impact of the invalidation decision in this case.
According to a report in the "Special Edition" column of "China Intellectual Property News" on June 11, 2025, this special topic focused on the deep-level impact of the Degarelix patent case on the industry ecosystem and invited multiple industry experts to participate in the comments. During the interview, Ms. Yitong Cui pointed out that the approach reflected in the decision not only helps to "prevent the allowance of low-quality patents for 'excessively refined indications' of existing drugs", but also encourages innovative entities to "invest more resources in developing innovative solutions based on deep typing (such as genetic characteristics and protein expression profiles)", providing important guidance for biomedical enterprises to optimize their intellectual property strategies.
NTD will continue to deepen its expertise in this field, assist enterprises in constructing an intellectual property strategy system that aligns with innovation trends, and promote the high-quality transformation of intellectual property.
Yitong Cui
Yitong Cui, a patent attorney, graduated from Tsinghua University in 2016 and joined NTD in 2018. Before then, she had been working as a patent examiner in CNIPA. Ms. Cui’s practice in NTD focuses mainly on patent drafting and patent prosecution. Ms. Cui is also a member of patent search team of NTD life sciences and chemistry group.
