Pharmaceutical success in the market is the best reward for pharmaceutical investors undergoing the lengthy, costly and risky process of pharmaceutical Research and Development （R&D）. Drugs with high market revenues trigger fierce competition between pharmaceutical enterprises, as is demonstrated by the increasing Mergers & Acquisitions （M&A）cases focusing on seizing the best-selling products. On the other hand, patents, as the best shield for innovative drugs against generic drugs, become a powerful weapon for pharmaceutical enterprises to win the substantial returns generated by market exclusivity. Patents seem to be directly responsible for the commercial success of new medicines. In this context, it is of great significance to find out the empirical associations between pharmaceutical market revenues and patents. The research aims to identify the associations between patent indicators and pharmaceutical market revenues at the product level and, further, to explore the applications of patent indicators in pharmaceutical product decision making in a real-world commercial setting. By comprehensively analyzing 127 drugs marketed in the US and their 621 American patents, this article identifies the evidence to link various patent indicators with pharmaceutical sales in actual market by using multiple regression method. The results are presented as follows: Forward Citations （FC）, Family Size （FS） and Portfolio Size （PS） are significantly positive associated with pharmaceutical sales, whereas Backward Citation （BC） shows significant negative relationships. The NC, however, seems to have no significant association with market revenues. The research approaches that focus on identifying the association between the patent indicators and the pharmaceutical market returns are of great significance for helping pharmaceutical managers or investors comprehend more hints to the market revenues.

药品研发具有研发周期长、资金投入高、技术难度大等特点，但是一旦药品 能够顺利进入市场，往往会为企业带来巨额回报，这从一定程度上对新药研发的 巨额投资及风险成本给予了补偿。近年来，对具有较高商业价值药品的争夺使制 药企业之间的竞争逐年加剧。而专利作为创新药物抵御仿制药竞争的最佳屏障， 保证了制药企业的市场独占权及高额利润的获取，并成为企业与其他竞争者抗衡 的有力武器。由此可知，专利与创新药物的市场收益具有密不可分的关系。在此 背景下，探索专利指标与药品市场收益之间的联系具有重要意义。本文旨在从产 品层面上确定专利指标与药品市场收益之间的联系，并进一步探索在实际商业环 境下，专利指标在制药企业产品决策制定的应用。本研究将对 127 个已在美国上 市的药品及其所属的 621 项美国专利进行综合分析。药品的销售额受到来自法律、 技术及商业等多种因素的影响，本文在控制技术与商业方面因素影响的基础上， 利用多元回归的方法对不同专利指标与药品市场销售额之间的联系进行定量分 析。结果表明，专利被引用数目、专利家族以及专利组合对药品销售额具有显著 的正向影响，而专利引用数目呈现显著负向影响，专利权利请求项数目对销售额 无显著影响。本研究通过确立专利指标与药品市场收益之间的联系，对企业管理 者或者投资人在未来市场活动中赢得先机具有重要意义。