Current Topics on Software Use in Medicinal Chemistry: Intellectual Property, Taxes, and Regulatory Issues

In recent times, there has been an increased use of software and computational models in Medicinal Chemistry, both for the prediction of effects such as drug-target interactions, as well as for the development of (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationships ((Q)SAR). Whilst the ultimate goal of Medicinal Chemistry research is for the discovery of new drug candidates, a secondary yet important outcome that results is in the creation of new computational tools. The adoption of computational tools by medicinal chemists is sadly, and all too often accompanied, by a lack of understanding of the legal aspects related to software and model use, that is, the copyright protection of new medicinal chemistry software and software-mediated discovered products. This article aims to provide a reference to the various legal avenues that are available for the protection of software, and the acceptance and legal treatment of scientific results and techniques derived from such software. An overview of relevant international tax issues is also presented. We have considered cases of patents protecting software, models, and/or new compounds discovered using methods such as molecular modeling or QSAR. This paper has been written and compiled by the authors as a review of current topics and trends on the legal issues in certain fields of Medicinal Chemistry and as such is not intended to be exhaustive.