TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING OF CHITOSAN, SILK FIBROIN AND XANTHAN GUM AS BIOMATERIALS FOR SCAFFOLDS-3D
Biomaterials are widely studied for the treatment of injured tissue, as chitosan, silk fibroin and xanthan gum. Studies with innovative potentiality demand anteriority searches for patents through technological forecasting. It helps orientating the research and the potential submission of patents. It is necessary to perform a technological forecasting to determine if a study is innovative. Then, the aim of this study was to carry out the technological forecasting of chitosan, silk fibroin and xanthan gum as biomaterials for 3D-scaffolds. The technological forecasting was conducted in databases as United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), Latin American and Spanish patents (LATIPAT), and National Institute of Industrial Property, from Brazil (INPI). It was performed in the period between January to July at 2017. The deposits from each biomaterial evidenced the large applicability that they possess, presenting several patents in different areas. Although, the number of the patents decreased when the research was delimited for these biomaterials applied as scaffolds. Furthermore, when the three materials were combined there was no patent deposited for their union forming scaffolds. Japan and United States were identified as the largest holders of deposits in EPO, for scaffolds and tissue regeneration. It was found only one deposit from Brazil related to these search. It was concluded that Brazil is developing in the technological field, but its number of patents is still low. Moreover, it was evidenced that scaffolds based on chitosan, silk fibroin and xanthan gum have innovative character, with possibility for patent submission.