Biodegradable Magnesium Implant Alloys Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 73.8% of the field sits with five assignees. 62 of the 84 records in scope belong to the top five filers, with the leader alone holding 22 — a market where the claim space around core alloy composition is already occupied.
- Filing has cooled since its 2023 peak. The year hit 8 filings in 2023, and the 2021→2024 span shows a -14% change (7 to 6) — a genuine plateau, not a collapse, once you account for publication lag on 2025-26 filings.
- Sterilising and disinfecting claims dominate, but coating is thin. A61L appears in 85.7% of records while C23C (coating & surface deposition) sits at just 9.5% — surface-treatment routes to control degradation rate remain comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 84 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Biodegradable magnesium implant alloys sit at the intersection of metallurgy and implantable device design: the alloy has to corrode at a controlled rate inside the body while holding enough mechanical integrity to do its job as a stent, screw, or plate before it resorbs. The 84 records in this dataset were pulled using claim and title language around degradation rate, hydrogen evolution, alloying element, grain refinement and rare earth free compositions — the vocabulary practitioners actually use when they draft around corrosion control and mechanical performance.
The scope spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, capturing both the wave of foundational magnesium-alloy composition patents from device makers and a more recent cluster of rare-earth-free formulations aimed at regulatory and supply-chain concerns.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 84 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the technology splits across IPC subclasses once a record is allowed to carry more than one classification.
A plateau after 2023's peak
Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 8 in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent span with complete publication data, shows a -14% change (7 down to 6) — a cooling rather than a fall, and 2025-26 figures should be read as still filling in given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Sterilising claims dominate; coating is thin
A61L (sterilising & disinfecting) touches 85.7% of the 84 records and C22C (alloys) 53.6%, confirming that composition and biocompatibility treatment are the field's core battlegrounds. A61F (implants & prostheses) and C22F (non-ferrous metal treatment) each sit in the mid-20s percent, while C23C (coating & surface deposition) at 9.5% and B21C (metal extrusion & drawing) at 2.4% mark the branches with the least claim density.
Shares are the percentage of the 84 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Biodegradable Magnesium Implant Alloys with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about biodegradable magnesium implant alloys and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents shaping this space
Biodegradable magnesium alloy without rare earth elements, preparation method and use thereof
The application covers a biodegradable magnesium alloy that excludes rare earth elements entirely, built from Mg balanced against Zn (1.0-5.0%), Mn (0.1-1.0%), Ca (0.1-1.0%), Sr (0.1-1.0%), Sn (0.1-3.0%) and Zr (0.1-0.8%). The claimed impurity profile is specified as rare-earth-free, and the filing extends to the preparation method and use in medical devices.Filed by Shanghai Int Medical Instruments Co., Ltd., published 2026-01-27 — one of the more recent entrants defining the rare-earth-free composition sub-branch.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20060020289A1 | Biocompatible and bioabsorbable suture and clip material for surgical purposes | 40 |
| 2 | US20160129162A1 | Protected Magnesium Alloys for Bioresorbable Stents | 36 |
| 3 | US20100082092A1 | Implant Made of a Biodegradable Magnesium Alloy | 33 |
| 4 | EP2169090A1 | Implant made of a biodegradable magnesium alloy | 32 |
| 5 | CN103418035A | 可调控镁合金血管支架降解速率的表面涂层的制备方法 | 28 |
| 6 | CN104888271A | 一种生物可降解镁合金表面锶羟基磷灰石涂层的制备方法 | 21 |
| 7 | WO2011117298A1 | Implant made of a biodegradable magnesium alloy | 19 |
| 8 | EP3144018A4 | Method for preparing surface coating with reduced degradation rate of biodegradable magnesium alloy vascular … | 18 |
| 9 | EP3144018A1 | Method for preparing surface coating with reduced degradation rate of biodegradable magnesium alloy vascular … | 18 |
| 10 | US20130041455A1 | Implant made of a biodegradable magnesium alloy | 17 |
Citation counts favour older, foundational filings inside this searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on later drafting, not as a marker of 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.
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Three read-outs from the filing and citation data that matter more for strategy than the raw counts alone.
The top of the field is tightly held
62 of 84 records belong to five assignees, with the leader alone at 22. New entrants working on core Mg-Zn-Ca-Mn composition space are filing into ground already covered by the largest players; differentiation is more likely in processing, coating, or rare-earth-free formulation than in base composition claims.
Momentum has cooled, not collapsed
After peaking at 8 filings in 2023, the field shows a -14% change across the 2021-to-2024 span, the most recent window with reliable publication data. Readers should not treat 2025-26 counts as a further decline — those years are still filling in under the normal 18-month publication lag.
Sterilising claims crowd the field; coating stays open
A61L (sterilising & disinfecting) and C22C (alloys) between them touch the large majority of records, while C23C (coating & surface deposition) and B21C (extrusion & drawing) remain comparatively lightly claimed. Surface-modification routes to tune degradation rate look like the more open technical corridor.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biodegradable magnesium implant alloys, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The assignee ranking covers 17 companies in total — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, the full set the data endpoint returns for this search. Five names account for nearly three-quarters of all records, with a long tail of single- and double-digit filers behind them.
One filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 22 of the 84 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 5. That gap signals a company that has built a defensive thicket around its core alloy and device claims rather than a field with many equally-matched competitors.
The long tail is thin past ten filers
The top 10 assignees combined account for 81 of 84 records, or 96.4% of the field. Only a handful of records sit outside that group, meaning most freedom-to-operate analysis in this space can focus on a small, identifiable set of portfolios.
Co-filing is rare and localised
Only three co-assignee pairings appear in the data, the strongest linking two Shanghai-based medical device firms across five shared records. Cross-institutional filing between universities and device makers exists but is not yet a structural feature of this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| MEKO Laserstrahl-Materialbearbeitungen e.K. | 1 | — |
| BIORETEC | 0 | — |
| Biotronik AG | 0 | — |
| Medtronic Vascular Inc. | 0 | — |
| Biotronik VI Patent AG | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Pumei Medical Instrument Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Innovaton Medical Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Meigang Fengyuan Medical Instruments Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape points to a field with an occupied core and a thinner periphery. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or tracking a specific competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top five
With 73.8% of records held by five assignees, any new composition or device filing should be checked against that concentrated set before drafting claims.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaProbe the coating and extrusion sub-branches
C23C and B21C carry the lowest record shares in this dataset, suggesting less-crowded claim space for surface treatment and processing-route innovations.
Search whitespace in EurekaTrack the rare-earth-free formulation trend
Recent filings, including the 2026 representative record, point to rare-earth-free compositions as an active drafting direction worth monitoring for new entrants and competitors alike.
Set up alerts in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One assignee leads with 22 of the 84 records in scope, and the top five assignees combined hold 62 records, or 73.8% of the field. That concentration means most competitive and freedom-to-operate analysis can focus on a small set of portfolios rather than a broad field of equal competitors. The remaining assignees, twelve in total beyond the top five, hold much smaller counts, down to single-digit filers at the tail of the ranking.
Filing peaked at 8 records in 2023 and the most recent complete-year comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows a -14% change from 7 down to 6 filings. That reads as a plateau rather than continued growth, though it is not a collapse. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the true recent trend will only become clear in later data pulls.
A rare-earth-free magnesium alloy avoids rare earth elements in its composition, typically substituting elements like zinc, calcium, manganese, strontium, tin and zirconium to control degradation rate and mechanical properties instead. This matters for patent strategy because rare-earth-free formulations, such as the 2026 representative filing in this dataset, represent an active and comparatively recent drafting direction, likely driven by supply-chain and regulatory considerations around rare earth sourcing rather than performance alone.
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) appears in only 9.5% of the 84 records in scope, and metal extrusion and drawing (B21C) in just 2.4%, both well below the 85.7% coverage of sterilising and disinfecting claims (A61L). Diagnostic and surgical integration (A61B) is present in only a single record. These lighter-claimed branches are worth a closer look for anyone seeking whitespace rather than composing around already-dense composition claims.
Very concentrated at the top: the top 10 assignees, out of 17 ranked in total, account for 81 of 84 records, or 96.4% of the entire field. That leaves only a handful of records spread across the remaining ranked companies. For due diligence purposes, this means a competitor or freedom-to-operate scan can cover nearly the whole field by focusing on a short, identifiable list of assignees.
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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.