Amorphous Solid Dispersion Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 70 families, then dropped back toward the 2022 midpoint of 33 — the pace has flattened rather than kept climbing.
- A61K carries every record in the set, but C07D heterocyclic claims (51) and B33Y additive-manufacturing claims (11) mark where formulation work is spilling into adjacent claim classes.
- Recent-year momentum has gone quiet across several major filers, with a cluster of established pharma assignees showing zero new filings in the latest year despite deep historical portfolios.
Filing growth compares 2021 (70 records) with 2024 (28) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 507 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this technology covers
Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) technology stabilises a drug in a non-crystalline state within a polymer carrier to raise its apparent solubility and dissolution rate. The patent activity tracked here spans 507 patent families filed between 2017 and mid-2026, built around the two dominant manufacturing routes — hot-melt extrusion and spray drying — and the physical-stability problems that follow: recrystallization risk, supersaturation control, and polymer-carrier selection.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2026 count in any trend chart is necessarily incomplete; treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling, on real filing activity.
Filing trends and technology composition
The numbers below come directly from the underlying corpus of 507 patent families and the IPC subclasses attached to them.
A flattening curve, not a rising one
Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 70 in 2021, then eased back — the 2022 midpoint of 33 sits well below peak, and the partial 2026 count of 13 continues that decline once publication lag is accounted for. Read this as a maturing claim space rather than an emerging one.
Concentrated in A61K, spilling into adjacent classes
Every record in the set touches A61K medicinal preparations, and 148 also carry A61P therapeutic-activity codes. The smaller counts in C07D (51), B01J (15), B29C (11) and B33Y (11) mark where dispersion work crosses into heterocyclic chemistry, process engineering, extrusion equipment and additive manufacturing — narrower but potentially less crowded filing zones.
Shares are the percentage of the 507 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Amorphous Solid Dispersion Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about amorphous solid dispersion technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art shaping this field
Ocular implant comprising an amorphous solid dispersion comprising a tyrosine kinase inhibitor and a polymer excipient
Filed by Ocular Therapeutix, this application applies ASD formulation — a tyrosine kinase inhibitor such as axitinib dispersed in a polymer excipient — to an injectable ocular implant, extending dissolution-enhancement claims from oral solid dosage forms into a local, sustained-release delivery route for treating ocular disease.Published 2026-04-16 — illustrates ASD claims moving beyond oral tablets into implantable delivery.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EP1027887A2 | Matrix controlled release device | 113 |
| 2 | WO2011156578A1 | Solid compositions | 103 |
| 3 | WO2016016665A1 | A method of preparing amorphous solid dispersion in submicron range by co-precipitation | 70 |
| 4 | WO2012122279A1 | Solid dispersion formulations and methods of use thereof | 60 |
| 5 | US20170209372A1 | A Method of Preparing Amorphous Solid Dispersion in Submicron Range by Co-Precipitation | 47 |
| 6 | WO2013101550A1 | Solid compositions comprising an HCV inhibitor | 45 |
| 7 | US4904477A | Spray dried ibuprofen compositions | 44 |
| 8 | EP0298666A2 | Spray dried ibuprofen compositions | 35 |
| 9 | WO2015152433A1 | Amorphous solid dispersion comprising paclitaxel, tablet comprising the same, and method for preparing the sa… | 24 |
| 10 | CN105126110A | 伊曲康唑的固体分散体及其制备方法和应用 | 22 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; they signal influence within this searched corpus, not current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern tells a formulation team
Three signals stand out once the raw counts are put next to each other: where claim density sits, how the pace has moved, and which jurisdictions matter for freedom-to-operate work.
The growth phase has already happened
The steepest filing activity sits in 2021, with the following years trending down rather than continuing to climb. A team assuming this is still an early-stage field is working from an outdated assumption.
Europe and the US carry the densest filing, India and Israel close behind
With India at 53 and Israel at 42 receiving-office counts, freedom-to-operate work on ASD formulations needs to clear more than the usual US/EU pair — generic and specialty manufacturers in both markets are actively filing.
Heterocyclic chemistry and 3D-printed dosage forms are minority branches
Most claims sit squarely in A61K, but the smaller pockets in heterocyclic compound chemistry and additive manufacturing point to where dispersion techniques are being adapted to new drug classes and new manufacturing formats.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to amorphous solid dispersion technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where activity has gone quiet
Several assignees with substantial historical portfolios show no new filings in the most recent tracked year — a pattern worth checking before assuming a competitor is still actively expanding its ASD claim position.
Established filers have paused, not exited
A cluster of assignees with deep prior filing histories in ASD formulation show zero filings in the latest tracked year. That can reflect a real pause, a shift to trade-secret protection for process know-how, or simply publication lag masking filings not yet public.
Co-filing is limited and mostly bilateral
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset appears three times; most pairs appear once or twice. This is a field where companies largely file alone rather than through joint ventures or cross-licensed development.
A moderate-sized, specialised corpus
507 patent families is a workable size for a focused freedom-to-operate review — dense enough to show real concentration patterns, small enough that individual assignee strategies remain visible rather than blurred into aggregate noise.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC | 0 | — |
| AbbVie Ireland Unlimited Company | 0 | — |
| AbbVie Bahamas Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Beijing InnoCare Pharma Tech Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sigachi Industries | 0 | — |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | 0 | — |
| Huiyuan Hong Kong Innovation Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trends above point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or identifying an open filing position.
Map claim boundaries around the most-cited prior art
The highest-cited records in this corpus, including matrix-controlled release and solid-dispersion composition patents, define the claim boundaries most new filings have to work around.
Explore citation network in EurekaTrack assignees that have gone quiet
Zero recent-year filings from established players may signal a shift toward trade secrecy for process parameters rather than continued patent disclosure.
Run assignee momentum analysis in EurekaTest claim language in under-claimed branches
Submicron co-precipitation and additive-manufacturing dosage forms show lower filing density than core oral ASD claims — a first-claim draft here has more room to move.
Draft and stress-test claims in EurekaCommon questions on amorphous solid dispersion patents
An amorphous solid dispersion is a formulation where a poorly soluble drug is dispersed at the molecular level in a polymer carrier so it exists in a non-crystalline, higher-energy state. This raises apparent solubility and dissolution rate compared with the crystalline drug alone. Patent claims in this space typically cover the specific polymer-drug combination, the manufacturing process used to create the dispersion, or methods to keep the drug from recrystallizing during storage — physical stability is the central technical problem the claims address.
The two dominant routes in this corpus are hot-melt extrusion and spray drying, both used to lock a drug into an amorphous state within a polymer matrix. Co-precipitation methods, including submicron-range co-precipitation, also appear among the most-cited records. Each route has distinct process-parameter claims, so a freedom-to-operate check needs to look at process patents separately from composition-of-matter patents covering the drug-polymer combination itself.
Filing activity in this space includes major branded pharmaceutical companies alongside specialty formulation firms, with activity concentrated in a set of assignees that hold multiple families each. Several of the assignees with the largest historical portfolios show no filings in the most recent tracked year, which is worth checking directly rather than assuming continued expansion. A full assignee ranking, updated against the current 507-family dataset, gives a clearer picture than any static list.
IPC composition data shows most claims sit in A61K medicinal preparations, with much smaller counts in additive manufacturing (B33Y, 11 records) and shaping-of-plastics process equipment (B29C, 11 records). These smaller branches, along with submicron co-precipitation methods and ASD-based implants for local sustained release, show lower filing density than core oral tablet formulations and represent areas where new claims face less crowded prior art.
Patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so filing counts for 2025 and 2026 in this dataset understate real activity and should be treated as a floor rather than a complete picture. The peak year on record so far is 2021 at 70 families, with the 2022 midpoint at 33 — a decline that predates the publication-lag effect and suggests the field's steepest growth phase has already passed, though later years may revise upward as more filings publish.
Research Amorphous Solid Dispersion Technology in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole amorphous solid dispersion technology corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.