Innovations and Patent Trends in the Development of USFDA Approved Protein Kinase Inhibitors in the Last Two Decades

Protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs) are important therapeutic agents. As of 31 May 2021, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved 70 PKIs. Most of the PKIs are employed to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. Imatinib was the first PKI approved by USFDA in 2001. This review summarizes the compound patents and the essential polymorph patents of the PKIs approved by the USFDA from 2001 to 31 May 2021. The dates on the generic drug availability of the PKIs in the USA market have also been forecasted. It is expected that 19 and 48 PKIs will be genericized by 2025 and 2030, respectively, due to their compound patent expiry. This may reduce the financial toxicity associated with the existing PKIs. There are nearly 535 reported PKs. However, the USFDA approved PKIs target only about 10–15% of the total said PKs. As a result, there are still a large number of unexplored PKs. As the field advances during the next 20 years, one can anticipate that PKIs with many scaffolds, chemotypes, and pharmacophores will be developed.