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Medicine is the 15th allowed in Brazil. The medicine will be manufactured in Canada and can be sold, with a prescription, in pharmacies and drugstores.

The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) approved, this Monday (25), the importation of a new medicinal product based on Cannabis, the Cannabidiol Active Pharmaceutical. The drug can be sold in pharmacies and drugstores, with a doctor’s prescription, through a type B prescription, which has a blue color.

This is the 15th cannabidiol-based product approved for medicinal purposes in Brazil. The product, which will be manufactured in Canada, is an oral solution with a concentration of 20 mg/mL of cannabidiol (CBD), with up to 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

The measure was published in the Official Gazette (DOU). The delivery of the product must be made by the pharmacist.

Source: G1

Cannabis-based treatments have shown great promise for a number of conditions, such as chronic pain, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. As a result, the number of drugs approved by Anvisa that use cannabis as a base, as well as imports, has also been growing.

In all, there are already 14 cannabis-based drugs approved by Anvisa, which can be found in pharmacies here in Brazil. Imports have also risen sharply, from 19,150 in 2020 to 40,191 in 2021, an increase of 109.8% in just one year.

Prescription is still very rare

However, cannabis-based medicines can only be sold with a doctor’s prescription, and this is where the issue starts to get a little more complex. Even with the rise in drug approvals, the number of prescriptions is still relatively low.

According to data from Anvisa, only 2,100 Brazilian professionals are able to prescribe cannabis-based medicines. This number is equivalent to only 0.5% of the total number of doctors currently working in Brazil.

“The medical profession needs to delve deeper into the potential of medical cannabis, because, without knowledge, there is no safety to prescribe”, declared neurosurgeon Flávia Montagner. According to the doctor, the demand for cannabis-based medicines by patients has grown a lot.

Source: Olhar Digital

From depression to epilepsy, multiple sclerosis to chronic pain, phobia to menstrual cramps — never has science advanced so far in discovering the medicinal properties of cannabis, the marijuana plant. It is estimated that the effects of cannabidiol, a substance found in small volumes in the stem and leaf of the herb, are being tested in at least twenty diseases in large reference centers around the world. One of the most extraordinary works is Brazilian. Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), in Ribeirão Preto, identified the therapeutic action of the compound in burnout, the syndrome of professional burnout.

Published in the journal JAMA, of the American Medical Association, the study evaluated 120 health professionals on the front lines of the response to Covid-19. Daily doses of 300 mg of the drug reduced symptoms of emotional fatigue by 25% in the volunteers, depression by 50%, and anxiety by 60%.

Well, now the group of scientists is studying the action of cannabidiol on Covid-19.

— We are evaluating, in partnership with the USP Institute of Psychiatry in São Paulo, the effect of cannabidiol in preventing the neurological and general medical consequences of coronavirus infection — says the leader of the research, psychiatrist José Alexandre Crippa.

Scientists have discovered that cannabidiol acids can bind to the Spike protein, the structure that the coronavirus uses to enter cells. With this, cannabis compounds could prevent infection. The work, published in the Journal of Natural Products, was developed in a laboratory and still needs to go through new steps, such as testing on humans.

Source: O Globo

Scientists from the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) created an adhesive capable of curing, in 24 hours, the lesion caused by the herpes simplex virus. The very low-cost dressing, moldable to the size of the lesion, and which requires constant replacement, works through the controlled release of the drug Acyclovir in the region of the skin or mucosa affected by this category of the infectious agent.

How is it developed

Developed from a mixture of bioabsorbable and biodegradable synthetic polymers, the regenerative adhesive has a small dimension and high surface area, facilitating the addition of pharmacological agents, mainly Acyclovir, and aesthetic comfort.

Both the size and shape and the concentration of drug available are easily adaptable to the needs of a patient, unlike the current treatment through the use of Acyclovir tablets or ointment.

Kaline Ferreira, one of the inventors of the patent, explains that the characteristics of the adhesive can be modified as the proportion of polymers that make up its structure is varied. It is also possible to change the release of Acyclovir by modifying the structural dimensions of the dressing by controlling the polymer concentrations used and the production process parameters.

She points out that, even though it can be sold in any pharmacy, the Ministry of Health reinforces that any antiviral drug needs a prescription.

How the herpes sore patch can be made available

The regenerative adhesive was developed between 2015 and 2017. The patent was filed in June 2018, with the Brazilian Patent Office (BPTO). The dressing development process will be published soon. The articles are undergoing peer review in international journals.

The creators of the patent intend to talk to pharmaceutical companies to evaluate the cost-benefit for large-scale production of the adhesive.

Source: Portal Correio

Cyptocurrency innovation has made virtually everything in the digital world susceptible to tokenization, and intellectual property is no exception to the trend thanks to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

NFTs – intangible assets that give their holder a unique certificate of authenticity – are gaining ground in the patent market through the optimization of several critical operations.

The music, art and even video game industries have all witnessed the potential of NFTs to safeguard value; now, intellectual property is being protected in this way also in the field of corporate patents.

The tokenization of these patents is carried out through the blockchain, which allows the parties to guarantee the traceability of the operation, as well as its centralization in one place.

“The current process requires lawyers, contracts, and a lot of bureaucracy, now, using NFTs, the entire model is simplified and all the information is in one place: the blockchain,” she told Bloomberg Línea Lavinia Meliti, who directs the strategy. and execution of IPwe’s business initiatives, a global platform for patent transactions.

Meliti indicates that NFTs offer a great opportunity if we take into account that “worldwide patent transactions, which are mostly licenses and acquisitions, are US$ 180 billion per year, which is a small percentage”.

“What if it gets to 10% or more? (This is) good for innovators, owners, partners, for finance, for service providers, and for society,” she said.

Lavinia Meliti indicated that she likes to refer to NFTs “as digital repositories that store all the information relevant to a patent in a single secure set – and this is happening for the first time in the history of patents.”

Instead of “having to go to multiple places where information about a patent can be stored, everything will exist in one place and the holder will control what can and cannot be seen and by whom”.

She says that “the concept of patents has existed for thousands of years, and the legal frameworks that support them have been in existence since the 15th century. Today, there are around 20 million patents worldwide that are granted by approximately 200 independent national patent offices that exist in each country that grants the patents.”

Incidentally, IPwe has partnered with tech giant IBM to tokenize patents in different areas such as electric vehicles or (soon) the metaverse – the so-called next internet age.

The company facilitates these transactions in Smart Pools, which are a type of patent bank in which patent holders offer their NFT-based licenses to consortium members – many are SMEs – to drive innovation at all scales.

Lavinia Meliti told Bloomberg Línea that she will launch a Smart Pool focused on blockchain patents, “allowing their holders, large companies, to share them with other companies”.

“We will have several of the largest blockchain patent holders in the world, located in Asia, Europe and North America,” said the executive, who did not reveal the names of the large corporations, but informed the interest of several participants in Latin America, as these see potential in markets such as Colombia and Mexico.

As for the participants, she commented that the profiles are divided between the holders of these patents and the members, who pay a kind of subscription to be able to use these technologies.

Small and medium-sized companies with revenues of less than US$1 million per year will have free access to all available patent portfolios.

Patent holders contribute their patents to Smart Pools, where they are then tokenized through NFTs. “If the patent holder decides to license it, license tokens linked to the original NFT will be created,” explains Meliti.

Thus, the tokenized patent license is transferred to the licensee for as long as it is in effect. And thanks to smart contracts, licensees get reminders when those licenses are about to expire.

“The smart contract is integrated into the NFT with standardized terms associated with each patent. The patent holder sets out the terms of their contract, what is public and what is not,” she adds.

According to the expert, “the capital, the parties to the transaction have the transparency, standardization of information and the ease of interaction they need”.

Source: Bloomberg Linea

BPTO was considered the sixth most innovative IP institute in the world in 2021, according to an annual ranking released by the World Trademark Review (WTR), which analyzed 60 national or regional IP institutions.

The ranking was led by the IP institutes of the European Union and South Korea. The third position was Singapore, followed by the United Kingdom and Mexico. In sixth place, alongside the BPTO, were the IP institutions of Australia and Chile.

In relation to Brazil, the publication highlighted that the BPTO had significant growth in the ranking in recent years, leaving 41st place in 2018 and rising about 20 positions in 2021. WTR highlighted the Institute’s actions to reduce the backlog, modernize its systems electronics, as well as stimulate innovation and economic development through IP assets.

Source: BPTO

Use of fingerprints on smartphone screens has been used for a long time. The technology serves well and has stagnated in recent years. However, Xiaomi intends to change that and has now filed a patent application for a fingerprint sensor that can be used across the entire screen of the device.

Xiaomi patents fingerprint recognition technology anywhere on the screen

According to the latest data from the Chinese Patent Office, the company has obtained a patent for fingerprint scanning technology. The technology allows you to use the scanner more freely without having to place your finger on a certain point on the screen.

In the patent, Xiaomi described the operation of a network of integrated infrared LED elements located between an AMOLED display and a capacitive touch layer. The network of “receivers” will be under the display. These elements will form the basic building blocks of the new scanner, which will serve the entire screen of the device.

Xiaomi’s patented fingerprint sensor

When the user touches the screen with their finger, the touch layer records the touch, its location, and the shape of the fingerprint, after which the LED elements begin to emit infrared light in the desired area. In this case, elements elsewhere on the screen will remain inactive.

Infrared light is then reflected off the fingertip and projected onto the receivers. The system will process the data to obtain a “card” of the fingerprint and the smartphone will compare it with the sample saved in memory. Once the fingerprint is identified, the user can unlock the device by touching any part of the screen.

Xiaomi’s patent is a major advance in fingerprint recognition and a smartphone, which currently has small screen spaces for this recognition. In addition, users increasingly seek convenience, and this patent brings that too.

In August, Huawei patented its technology for a similar purpose in several markets, including China, Europe, USA, Japan, Korea, and India, but the development did not find commercial use, which, according to the site, must have been due to US sanctions that seriously restrict the company’s technological capacity. As Xiaomi has not yet faced such sanctions, new scanners may be launched shortly.

Source: SempreUpdate

The Walt Disney Company obtained a patent for a device capable of producing virtual reality and augmented reality without the need for glasses, headsets, or digital devices. Virtual World Simulator had its name registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office on December 28 and should bring something unprecedented until then.

The patent suggests that Disney intends to raise the level of digital simulation to something unprecedented, far beyond virtual reality and augmented reality, two of the main production focuses of large technology companies. The Disney theme parks metaverse must connect digital, data, and physical elements in a “virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space,” according to the documentation.

Disney would be willing to create a virtual universe inspired by Disneyland that would allow the simulation of animated characters and theme park attractions in a virtualized, 3D, and realistic way. The technology would use three-dimensional images generated by multiple projectors capable of generating a high rate of images per second.

How does Virtual World Simulator work?

The premise of Virtual World Simulator would be the use of the SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technique, which tracks in real-time the user’s point of view and implements changes in the images, which gives a sensation similar to being in motion.

The 3D virtual effects would be projected onto real park locations and could bring animated characters to life or simulate animated objects, props, and artwork. If all goes well, the experience of visiting Disneyland and Walt Disney World parks could deliver an even more enchanting and unique experience.

According to Founders Legal’s technical and patent technology consultant, John DeStefano, the entertainment giant would come out ahead of competitors by bringing simulations independent of the phone screen or headphones. “Disney has developed a system that is almost similar to a movie projector to project onto a real surface what humans see on a screen,” he explained in an interview with SiliconValley.

There’s still no time frame for Disney to deploy the Virtual World Simulator technology, but it likely won’t take that long, as the patent is often one of the last processes performed in the development of a product.

Source: CanalTech

A study by researchers at the Augusta University School of Medicine, Georgia, USA, found that cannabidiol (CBD), one of the active ingredients in marijuana, was able to reduce, in mice, the size of a highly aggressive brain tumor and lethal. After inhaling the compound, the animals began to produce fewer substances that favor the growth of glioblastoma.

To simulate brain cancer in mice, the researchers used modified human glioblastoma cells (adapted for animals), creating what is called “orthotopic glioblastoma”, the most realistic possible model for the tumor, produced artificially outside the human body.

After eight days, the disease was already active and aggressively in the animals’ brains. On the ninth day, the team of researchers started the treatment with daily doses of inhaled cannabidiol, while some animals received a placebo, to control the work. The experiment lasted seven days and the study was published in the specialized journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Scientists observed a significant decrease in tumor size in imaging tests done in mice that inhaled cannabidiol, not seen in animals that ingested a placebo.

Currently, the treatment of glioblastoma-type brain cancer is surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, the results are usually not satisfactory, as this type of tumor is resistant to drugs.

The scientists’ idea is to use cannabidiol — if its beneficial effects are proven in further studies — in conjunction with the treatment already used in people diagnosed with glioblastoma.

Source: Cenarium Magazine

As reported by Bloomberg Law, a portal dedicated to legal news, Apple is facing a lawsuit from ImmerVision, a Canadian technology company specializing in image processing and wide-angle lenses, alleging that the giant would have incorporated one of its inventions into the cameras of devices ranging from the iPhone 11, 12 Mini, 13 Pro Max to the iPad 2021. The lawsuit was brought in October and, more recently, part of this equipment was included in the action.

The technology employed by Apple would violate a patent granted to the Canadian company in 2005. In this, the principle would have been broken with “objective lens structures that compress the center and edges of an image, while expanding an intermediate zone”.

Presumably, then, the ultra-angle sensor on Apple devices — whose 120-degree wide view is fixed by iOS — is supposed to be the problem at hand.

Through the lawsuit, ImmerVision seeks damages — in an amount not specified in the document — and an order to block future use of the invention. The official complaint was filed in Federal Court in the city of blocking the future use of his invention, according to the claim filed in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. Apple has not yet officially commented on the matter.