Autoinjector High-Viscosity Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- 79.1% concentration. The top 5 of 22 ranked assignees hold 121 of the 153 records in scope — a field where a handful of filers already occupy most of the claim space.
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak. 21 records published that year against a documented -50% change from 2021 (6) to 2024 (3), the last year the trend can be read as complete.
- 94.1% sit in one IPC subclass. A61M dominates at 144 of 153 records, leaving testing/calibration (G01M), training aids (G09B) and container claims (A61J) as comparatively thin, specific pockets.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 153 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 153 published records matching autoinjector device design and high-viscosity subcutaneous injection language, filtered further to claims language around injection force requirement, spring or gas-driven actuation, needle gauge selection, injection time, glass syringe breakage and delivered dose accuracy. The scope spans filings from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with publication lagging filing by roughly eighteen months — so the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity.
Records concentrate heavily in body-fluid device classifications, with smaller pockets touching test-rig engineering, training simulators, surgical diagnosis tooling and medicine containers. Receiving-office data shows United States filings leading, followed by European and PCT routes, then United Kingdom, Israel and Australia — a filing footprint consistent with a device category built for global pharma launch rather than a single regional market.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 153-record set: activity over time, and where the claims sit across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a documented pullback
Filings peaked at 21 records in 2017. The most recent complete comparison — 2021's 6 records against 2024's 3 — shows a -50% change over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
IPC composition: A61M carries almost the whole field
A61M (devices for introducing media into the body) appears on 94.1% of the 153 records. The remaining subclasses — G01M testing/balance apparatus, G09B training aids, A61B diagnosis/surgery and A61J medicine containers — each cover a handful of records and mark narrower, more specific claim territory rather than competing core categories.
Shares are the percentage of the 153 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Autoinjector Design for High-Viscosity Drugs with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about autoinjector design for high-viscosity drugs and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this landscape
Process and autoinjector device for injections with increased patient comfort
The invention provides methods and apparatus for injecting a medicine, especially a highly viscous medicine. Conventional apparatus for injecting viscous medicines suffers from problems such as excessive force during initial needle insertion and initial injection. In the inventive method, energy is stored in a torsion spring during the initial phase and released during a later stage, with an improved autoinjector using a combination compression-and-torsion spring that controls force applied to the plunger via a screw flange or nut.Filed by Battelle Memorial Institute, published 2018-07-19 — illustrates the mechanical-energy-storage route to solving high initial injection force.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160038689A1 | Body contour adaptable autoinjector device | 130 |
| 2 | US20180064875A1 | Auto-Injection Device | 120 |
| 3 | US9867940B2 | Auto-injection device | 111 |
| 4 | WO2009098502A2 | Autoinjector having a trigger and a cocking arrangement with an elongate flexible element | 91 |
| 5 | US20120130342A1 | Autoinjector having an outer packaging and a needle sheath removing means | 87 |
| 6 | WO2010026414A1 | Syringe safety shields and autoinjector | 49 |
| 7 | WO2010089589A1 | Autoinjector having an outer packaging and a needle sheath removing means | 48 |
| 8 | US8932254B2 | Syringe safety shields and autoinjector | 44 |
| 9 | WO2013089620A1 | Auto-injection device | 43 |
| 10 | US20140276568A1 | Systems and methods for dampening friction in an autoinjector device | 39 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Four read-outs from the concentration, trend and classification data above.
The core mechanism space is already claimed by a small group
With the top 5 of 22 ranked assignees holding 121 of 153 records, new entrants working on core spring or gas-driven actuation are filing into dense prior art held by a handful of established players.
Activity has pulled back from its 2017 peak
The peak year, 2017, produced 21 records; by the last comparable year, 2024, output had fallen to 3. That does not mean the technology is exhausted — it means the easy claims around the original mechanism families are already staked.
One subclass, several distinct claim strategies inside it
A61M's dominance means differentiation inside this landscape happens at the mechanism and sub-feature level — spring type, gas-drive control, needle gauge selection, dose-accuracy sensing — not at the top classification level.
US-first filing strategy with broad secondary coverage
United States filings lead at 53, with Europe (22), WIPO/PCT (18), United Kingdom (12), Israel (8) and Australia (7) rounding out a filing footprint built for staged multi-jurisdiction pharma launch.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to autoinjector design for high-viscosity drugs, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
22 assignees are ranked in this dataset by patent family count. The distribution is steep: the leader holds 37 records, fifth place holds 10, and tenth place holds just 2 — a sharp drop-off rather than a gradual tail.
A single filer sets the pace
The leading assignee's 37 records is more than triple the fifth-place count of 10, indicating a company that has built a broad portfolio across multiple mechanism variants rather than a single blocking patent family.
A defined second tier, not a smooth gradient
Fifth place holds 10 records against tenth place's 2 — the ranking drops sharply rather than tapering gradually, meaning the field has a small group of serious portfolio-holders and then a long tail of narrower filers.
Co-filing is rare and internally clustered
Only 4 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links pair a company with its own named inventors or with its own group entity — evidence of internal portfolio structuring more than cross-company joint development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Owen Mumford | 0 | — |
| Pharma Consult GmbH & Co Nfg KG | 0 | — |
| Amgen Inc | 0 | — |
| SHL Medical AG | 0 | — |
| SHL Group AB | 0 | — |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | 0 | — |
| The Medical House | 0 | — |
| QUIO TECHNOLOGIES LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a claim space that is dense at the core and thinner at the edges. Two directions follow from that.
Map the mechanism sub-features inside A61M
Since 94.1% of records share one IPC subclass, the meaningful differentiation is in spring design, gas-drive control, needle gauge selection and dose-accuracy sensing — a claim-by-claim comparison inside the leader's 37 records is more useful than a classification-level view.
Explore mechanism claims in EurekaTrack the leader's recent filings for design-around gaps
With filing activity down from its 2017 peak and the leader holding more than triple the fifth-place count, watching which specific claims lapse or narrow is a faster route to freedom-to-operate than a fresh prior-art search.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One assignee leads with 37 of the 153 records in this dataset, more than triple the fifth-ranked company's 10 records. The top 5 of 22 ranked assignees together hold 121 records, or 79.1% of all records in scope. This means the core mechanism space — spring-driven and gas-driven actuation for overcoming high viscosity resistance — is concentrated among a small number of established filers rather than spread across many small players.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 21 records and has declined since; comparing 2021 (6 records) to 2024 (3 records), the last year that can be treated as complete, shows a -50% change. Publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as evidence of continued decline. The honest reading is that the original wave of core mechanism patents has largely been filed, and current activity is narrower and more incremental.
The dataset shows 94.1% of records carrying an A61M classification for body-fluid devices, with much smaller pockets in testing/calibration apparatus (G01M, 3.3%), training and demonstration aids (G09B, 2.0%), diagnosis/surgery tooling (A61B) and medicine containers (A61J), each under 1%. These smaller classes, along with specific sub-features like delivered-dose accuracy sensing and needle-sheath removal mechanisms, represent comparatively under-claimed territory relative to the dominant mechanism cluster.
US20180200442A1, filed by Battelle Memorial Institute and published 2018-07-19, describes an autoinjector using a combination compression-and-torsion spring that stores energy early in the injection cycle and releases it later, controlling plunger force through a screw flange or nut. It directly targets the problem of excessive initial force during needle insertion into highly viscous medicine. Anyone designing a spring-based force-profiling mechanism for high-viscosity injection should check this claim scope before finalizing a similar staged-release spring architecture.
The United States leads receiving offices with 53 filings, followed by the European Patent Office at 22 and the WIPO/PCT route at 18. The United Kingdom (12), Israel (8) and Australia (7) round out the picture. This spread reflects a filing strategy built around eventual multi-jurisdiction pharmaceutical device launch, with the US as the primary initial filing venue.
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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.