Biopharma & Therapeutics Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 90,928 records, modest concentration. The five leading assignees hold just 11.1% of all filings combined — the field is wide, not dominated by a handful of players.
- Filings fell 36% from 2021 to 2024. After peaking at 1,263 in 2020, activity eased to 701 by 2024, the last year with a reasonably complete count.
- Manufacturing classes stay thin. Bioreactor and fermentation apparatus claims each cover just 1.5% of records, well behind the crowded therapeutic-composition classes.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,098 records) with 2024 (701) — 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 90,928 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A wide field with occupied core claims
Across 90,928 published records filed from 2015 through mid-2026, biopharma, therapeutics and drug discovery patenting spans antibody engineering, cell and gene therapy, RNA therapeutics, targeted protein degradation and regenerative medicine. The technology composition is anchored by two large classes: C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and A61K (medicinal preparations), which together with material-analysis and peptide-chemistry claims account for the bulk of documented activity.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2020, and has eased since — though the most recent one to two years understate true filing volume because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. Assignee concentration is modest: the leading five organisations combined hold barely more than a tenth of all records, leaving a long tail of universities, biotechs and single-filing entrants that any competitive read of this field has to account for.
Filing trends and technology composition
Across 90,928 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, the field shows a broad and still-diversifying technology base rather than a single dominant claim category.
Filing activity peaked in 2020, then eased
Filings rose from 914 in 2017 to a peak of 1,263 in 2020, before falling from 1,098 in 2021 to 701 in 2024 — a 36% decline over that three-year span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years should not yet be read as a continued decline.
Genetic engineering and medicinal preparations dominate the classification mix
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and A61K (medicinal preparations) are the two largest IPC subclasses, at 11.3% and 10.4% of the 90,928 records respectively. Material analysis, peptide/protein chemistry and enzyme-based measurement methods each sit in the 5-7% range, while bioreactor and fermentation apparatus classes remain comparatively small at 1.5% each — since a single record can carry several classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 90,928 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaThe records shaping this landscape
Methods of cell-based technologies
The present disclosure features methods relating to conducting a stem cell technology business such as a regenerative medicine business based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and cells differentiated from iPSCs. The present disclosure also provides a database of iPSC-derived cells and methods of using the database for tracking customers and samples, as well as methods for marketing and running the business.Filed by Kyoto University, published 2009-12-03 as US20090299763A1 — notable for claiming the business and data-tracking layer around iPSC commercialisation rather than the underlying cell-reprogramming science.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2014093622A2 | Delivery, engineering and optimization of systems, methods and compositions for sequence manipulation and the… | 1,492 |
| 2 | US5569588A | Methods for drug screening | 996 |
| 3 | US20140179770A1 | Delivery, engineering and optimization of systems, methods and compositions for sequence manipulation and the… | 981 |
| 4 | US6689558B2 | Cells for drug discovery | 970 |
| 5 | US6083763A | Multiplexed molecular analysis apparatus and method | 873 |
| 6 | US20160208243A1 | Novel crispr enzymes and systems | 863 |
| 7 | US6225047B1 | Use of retentate chromatography to generate difference maps | 812 |
| 8 | US6342219B1 | Antibody compositions for selectively inhibiting VEGF | 778 |
| 9 | US9790490B2 | CRISPR enzymes and systems | 757 |
| 10 | US20140242699A1 | Delivery, engineering and optimization of systems, methods and compositions for sequence manipulation and the… | 727 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older records accumulate more citations by nature of tenure, not necessarily current relevance.
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Reading across concentration, technology mix and citation patterns points to a field with occupied core claim territory and open manufacturing-adjacent ground.
Filing is broad, not dominated
The five leading assignees combined hold 11.1% of all 90,928 records, and the tenth-ranked assignee holds only 926 — a fraction of the leader's 2,782. Freedom-to-operate work here has to look well past the top names.
Post-2020 peak, now cooling — with a caveat
Filings peaked at 1,263 in 2020 and fell from 1,098 in 2021 to 701 in 2024. Years after 2024 look lower still, but publication lag of roughly 18 months means those figures are not yet complete.
Genetic engineering leads the classification mix
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and A61K (medicinal preparations) are the two largest IPC subclasses, at 11.3% and 10.4% of records respectively — well ahead of assay, screening and apparatus classes.
Old foundational art still anchors the field
The most-cited records date to the early-to-mid patent life of the sequence-manipulation and drug-screening branches. Their citation counts reflect years of accumulated influence, not current filing activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biopharma, therapeutics & drug discovery patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
A broad field led by research institutions and large biopharma
The ranked leaders mix major biopharma companies with research universities and institutes, and no single organisation commands more than a small slice of total filings.
The top filer, by volume
The leading assignee holds 2,782 records, well ahead of the field, but that still represents only a small fraction of the 90,928 total records in scope.
Combined share stays under a fifth
The ten leading assignees together account for 15,514 records, or 17.1% of all records in scope — concentrated enough to matter, but far from a closed field.
Some of the densest claims are jointly held
The strongest documented co-assignee pairing spans 718 shared records between two major research institutions, pointing to jointly-owned claim territory in gene-editing and sequence-manipulation work.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 4 | -84% |
| The Broad Institute, Inc. | 4 | -85% |
| Lyell Immunopharma | 4 | -73% |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | 2 | -82% |
| The Regents of the University of California | 2 | -86% |
| Genentech, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| aTyr Pharma, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Pangu BioPharma Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The published-record view here is a starting point; deeper freedom-to-operate and white-space work benefits from drilling into specific claim families and assignee portfolios.
Check a specific claim family
Filing density in C12N and A61K means many programmes will overlap existing claims; pulling the specific family behind a target product is the only reliable next step before committing to a route.
Search claim families in EurekaTrack assignee momentum over time
Recent-year filing counts shift quickly among the leading institutions; watching momentum by assignee helps spot who is pulling back and where new entrants are emerging.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaMap the under-claimed branches
Manufacturing and apparatus classes remain comparatively open relative to therapeutic-composition claims; a focused search of these branches can surface first-claim opportunities.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about the biopharma patent landscape
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies and institutions counted across the full set of 90,928 records in scope, with the leader holding 2,782 records. Filing is not heavily concentrated at the very top: the five leading assignees combined account for only 11.1% of all records, and the ranked leaders extend to a long tail of universities, biotech firms and single-filing entrants. This means no single organisation controls the field outright, and freedom-to-operate analysis needs to look well beyond the top few names.
Filings rose steadily through the late 2010s, peaked at 1,263 in 2020, then declined from 1,098 in 2021 to 701 in 2024, a 36% drop over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that is expected: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years of any patent dataset are always undercounted. Treat the 2021-2024 figures as the most reliable recent read on the trend rather than the partial later years.
Microorganisms and genetic engineering (C12N) and medicinal preparations (A61K) are the two most heavily claimed classes, covering 11.3% and 10.4% of the 90,928 records respectively. Peptide and protein chemistry, material analysis and testing, and enzyme/DNA measurement methods each sit in the mid-single digits. High density in these classes signals that claim space is occupied and prior art is thick, not that the underlying science is exhausted or that new filings are impossible there.
Bioreactor and enzyme apparatus claims (C12M) and fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims (C12P) each account for only 1.5% of the 90,928 records in scope, far below the therapeutic-composition classes above them. These manufacturing and process-adjacent branches carry real commercial weight for scaling cell and gene therapies but have not attracted anywhere near the same filing density, making them a more open area for a first-mover claim built around a specific process or apparatus rather than a broad composition of matter.
The most-cited records, such as WO2014093622A2 with 1,492 citations and US5569588A with 996, are older foundational filings on sequence manipulation and drug screening methods respectively. High citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citing art, so they are best read as a signal of historical influence on the field rather than a measure of what is commercially important or actively litigated today.
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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.