Animal Health Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 33.7% concentration. The five leading assignees account for 3,722 of the 11,041 records in scope — a third of the field sits with a handful of agrochemical and crop-science filers.
- Filings down 50% since the peak filing years. Filings fell from 705 in 2021 to 351 in 2024, a -50% move over that span; treat 2025-2026 as still filling in rather than as confirmation of further decline.
- Biocide and heterocyclic-compound classes dominate. A01N (agrochemicals) appears on 56.0% of records and C07D (heterocyclic compounds) on 32.3% — the sensor and data-workflow angle in the search terms is a minority share of the filings it returns.
Filing growth compares 2021 (705 records) with 2024 (351) — 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 11,041 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset pulls records where animal health language overlaps with terms describing patient records, clinical decision support, care workflow, health data or field sensors. The result is dominated less by veterinary-device filings than by agrochemical and crop-science assignees whose filings on biocides, plant breeding and pesticide activity happen to intersect the search terms — a reminder that the label on a dataset and the center of mass inside it are not always the same thing.
Across 11,041 records filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, the IPC composition is heavily weighted toward A01N and C07D — agrochemical and heterocyclic-compound classes — with medicinal preparations, plant breeding and peptide chemistry as secondary clusters. Readers looking specifically for wearable-sensor or clinical-workflow patents will find that slice sitting inside a much larger agrochemical corpus, not as the majority of it.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 11,041 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 582 in 2017 to a peak of 725 in 2019, then declined to 351 by 2024 — a -50% move from the 2021 level of 705. 2025 and 2026 figures (61 in 2026) are undercounted because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; they should not be read as a continued fall.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A01N (agrochemicals/biocides) leads at 56.0% of the 11,041 records, followed by C07D (heterocyclic compounds) at 32.3% and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) at 25.5%. Sensor- and data-workflow-adjacent activity is concentrated in the smaller A61K and A61P shares (13.8% and 5.7% respectively) rather than in a dedicated device class, since a record can carry several IPC codes these shares sum above 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 11,041 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Animal Health Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about animal health patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative record
Deep Neural Network Systems, Devices, Methods and Media for Animal Health
Exemplary embodiments include a system including an animal health device configured to receive animal health data, the animal health device including an array of non-contact transducers, lasers or sensors to detect the animal health data. The animal health data may include heart rate, heart rhythm, respiration rate, calories burned, an activity level, a sleep score, body temperature, or pulse oximetry and the animal health data may be received without touching a skin surface of an animal.Filed by Pet Metrics Inc., published 2023-05-18 — one of the few records in this set that squarely matches the sensor/health-data framing of the search terms rather than the agrochemical majority.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6211626B1 | Illumination components | 2,644 |
| 2 | US5256775A | Exonuclease-resistant oligonucleotides | 1,794 |
| 3 | US6166496A | Lighting entertainment system | 1,275 |
| 4 | US6528954B1 | Smart light bulb | 1,246 |
| 5 | US6340868B1 | Illumination components | 1,122 |
| 6 | US7855326B2 | Methods for weed control using plants having dicamba-degrading enzymatic activity | 1,112 |
| 7 | US6459919B1 | Precision illumination methods and systems | 1,062 |
| 8 | US6040497A | Glyphosate resistant maize lines | 951 |
| 9 | US6292901B1 | Power/data protocol | 926 |
| 10 | WO1998044140A1 | Glyphosate resistant maize lines | 923 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat the ranking as a signal of influence within this dataset, not a marker of current technical importance.
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Three readings of the same corpus: concentration at the top, where the recent momentum sits, and what the technology mix implies for filing strategy.
A third of the field sits with five assignees
The five leading assignees combine for 3,722 of the 11,041 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 5,501 records (49.8%). That is a field where a new entrant is filing directly against dense prior art held by a small number of agrochemical and crop-science majors, not a fragmented long tail.
Filing volume has pulled back from its peak
Filings dropped from 705 in 2021 to 351 in 2024, and momentum data by assignee shows year-over-year declines across the leading filers in the most recent complete year. 2025-2026 counts are too new to read as a trend given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Biocide and agrochemical claims dominate the class mix
A01N alone touches 56.0% of the 11,041 records, with C07D heterocyclic-compound claims close behind at 32.3%. Sensor- and workflow-oriented filings implied by the search terms are a minority presence, concentrated instead in the smaller A61K medicinal-preparation share.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to animal health patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc | E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co | 251 |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | Grains Research and Development Corporation | 216 |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | Nuseed Pty Ltd | 81 |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | Nuseed Nutritional Australia Pty Ltd | 71 |
| FMC Corp | FMC Agricultural Singapore Pte Ltd | 62 |
| Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc | ABAD ANDRE R | 42 |
| FMC Corp | FMC IP Technologies Ltd | 42 |
| Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc | SHI XIAOMEI | 41 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data; the strongest links joint agrochemical and crop-research entities filing together at counts far above the rest, suggesting formal R&D partnerships rather than incidental co-filing.
Leading assignees and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders are agrochemical and crop-science majors first; the animal-health sensor and workflow angle in the search terms is a smaller, more open slice of the same corpus.
A single filer well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 974 records, well above the fifth-place figure of 547 and tenth-place figure of 286 — a steep drop-off rather than a gentle one, typical of a field anchored by a small number of large agrochemical portfolios.
Even active filers are pulling back
Assignees still filing in the latest year are doing so at much lower volume than before: one leading agrochemical filer logged 6 records in the latest year (-68% YoY), while others show declines as steep as -89% to -93%. One tracked assignee held flat at 1 record, 0% YoY.
Joint filing concentrates among a few pairs
The strongest co-assignee pair in the data appears 251 times, and the next strongest 216 times — evidence of sustained joint R&D between specific crop-science and research-body pairings rather than broad cross-industry collaboration.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| FMC Corp | 6 | -68% |
| Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc | 2 | -89% |
| Bayer AG | 2 | -33% |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 1 | 0% |
| PI Industries Ltd | 1 | -93% |
| Bayer CropScience LP | 0 | — |
| E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this next
The numbers above describe the corpus as a whole; the next step is testing a specific claim or filer against it.
Check a draft claim against the crowded classes
If a concept sits inside A01N or C07D, expect dense prior art and a leader-heavy field; drafting around the ranked leaders' existing claim scope is the first move, not an afterthought.
Run a claim check in EurekaTrace the sensor and workflow sub-branches
The under-claimed areas identified here are thinner slices of a large agrochemical dataset — worth a targeted search before assuming they are open.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the leading assignees' next moves
Momentum has slowed across the leading filers in the most recent complete year; tracking their filing cadence going forward is more informative than the raw ranking alone.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this dataset the leading assignee holds 974 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 547 and the tenth at 286. The ranked leaders are dominated by agrochemical and crop-science companies rather than veterinary-device makers, because the search terms combine animal-health language with agricultural and health-data terms. The top five assignees together account for 33.7% of the 11,041 records in scope, and the top ten for 49.8%, so a new entrant is filing into a field with real concentration at the top.
Filing volume peaked at 725 records in 2019 and has since declined, falling from 705 in 2021 to 351 in 2024 — a -50% move over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 (61 so far in 2026) are not yet reliable because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so recent years always look thinner than they will eventually turn out to be. Based on the last complete year of data, 2024, momentum has clearly cooled from the 2019-2021 peak.
A01N, covering biocides and agrochemicals, appears on 56.0% of the 11,041 records, making it by far the largest single class. C07D (heterocyclic compounds) follows at 32.3% and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) at 25.5%. Sensor-, data- and workflow-oriented filings implied by terms like clinical decision or field sensor are a smaller share, sitting mostly within the A61K medicinal-preparations class at 13.8%.
The clearest gaps sit beneath the dominant agrochemical classes, in areas like non-contact physiological sensing for livestock, field-deployed health data capture and care-workflow decision support — sub-areas implied by the search terms but thin relative to the overall corpus. These branches are not unclaimed, but claim density there is far lower than in A01N or C07D. Anyone drafting in this space should run a targeted search on the specific sensing or workflow mechanism rather than assuming the whole animal-health category is open.
It is concentrated at the top and long-tailed below it: the top five assignees hold 33.7% of the 11,041 records and the top ten hold 49.8%, while the ranking runs to 100 companies with counts dropping off quickly after the leaders. That pattern — a steep drop from leader to mid-field — is typical of a field anchored by a handful of large agrochemical portfolios rather than one with many similarly sized competitors.
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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.