PERTH, Australia – Australia attracted international attention in July when a Federal Court ruled that artificial intelligence can be named as the inventor of a patent. In Thaler v. Commissioner of Patents, Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach ruled that under Australian patent law, inventors don’t necessarily have to be human. The decision challenges the assumption that only human beings can be inventors. Beach did rule, however, that an AI system cannot apply for a patent or receive a patent.

In 2021, progress on preventing and treating COVID-19 was a seemingly endless series of starts and stalls. In spite of the high-profile stumbles, science and finance took startling steps forward.

There was no slowing of biopharma innovation in 2021, even as industry directed significant resources to, while feeling the impact of, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The year saw big wins for developers of DNA vaccines and biosimilars, while CAR T expanded its reach and a drug target once considered undruggable was finally conquered. And as 2021 gives way to 2022, other potentially game-changing technologies and therapeutics are waiting in the wings.

While financings have reached record levels, the stocks of BioWorld’s Neurological Diseases Index are now underground by 12.5%, a trajectory shadowed by the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, down by 3.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average representing the broader markets, however, is up by nearly 13%.