Chromatographic Fingerprinting Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 27 records, then eased to 22 by 2024 — a -19% shift over that span, not a collapse of interest.
- The top 5 assignees hold 30.0% of all 213 records, and the top 10 hold 45.1% — concentrated, but with a long tail of single- and double-filing entrants.
- 206 of the receiving-office filings are Chinese, with only a handful reaching Japan, the US, ZA or the EPO — a domestically-anchored field with limited cross-border filing so far.
Filing growth compares 2021 (27 records) with 2024 (22) — 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 213 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent set covers
Chromatographic fingerprinting for quality control uses chromatogram-based similarity evaluation, reference-chromatogram comparison, peak assignment and chemometric analysis to verify that different batches of a formulated product, most often a traditional Chinese medicine preparation, remain chemically consistent. The 213 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and cluster overwhelmingly around methods for building, validating and applying these fingerprints as a batch-consistency and method-transfer tool rather than as a discovery or synthesis technique.
The filing pattern is a domestic one: over 96% of receiving-office activity is Chinese, and the assignee base is dominated by pharmaceutical manufacturers and traditional Chinese medicine research institutes rather than instrument makers or multinational pharma. That shapes where the claim space is dense and where it remains open.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 213 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the underlying methods sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 18 in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2021, then eased to 22 by 2024, a -19% change over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still partial: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent two years will fill in as later publications are indexed.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G01N (material analysis and testing) covers 100.0% of all 213 records, confirming this is overwhelmingly an analytical-method field. Smaller shares touch A61K (medicinal preparations, 2.8%) and A61P (therapeutic activity, 2.3%), with B01J, G06F and G06K each appearing in a single record — early signals of chemometric software and catalytic-process linkage that have not yet become a distinct filing pattern.
Shares are the percentage of the 213 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chromatographic Fingerprinting for Quality Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chromatographic fingerprinting for quality control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20250067710A1 — Method for constructing fingerprint of Xin Su Ning capsule
The filing, from Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, describes extracting contents from Xin Su Ning capsules of different batches, running gradient-elution HPLC to record chromatograms over a 0–140 minute window, importing those chromatograms into a traditional Chinese medicine fingerprint similarity-evaluation system, and following up with mass spectral analysis.One of the few records in this set to reach a US receiving office, filed by a university rather than a manufacturer.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN106501434A | 一种双和汤标准汤的HPLC指纹图谱测定方法 | 30 |
| 2 | CN110108825A | 蓝芩口服液指纹图谱的建立方法及其指纹图谱和应用 | 21 |
| 3 | CN104181248A | 一种感冒灵颗粒的指纹图谱检测方法 | 20 |
| 4 | CN107727753A | 百乐眠胶囊指纹图谱的建立方法及其指纹图谱 | 19 |
| 5 | CN107796892A | 艽龙胶囊的指纹图谱及其在质量控制与成分分析中的应用 | 17 |
| 6 | CN103869003A | 黄柏药材双溶剂融合HPLC指纹图谱的建立方法及其标准指纹图谱 | 17 |
| 7 | CN111175428A | 补肾助孕颗粒指纹图谱的检测方法 | 16 |
| 8 | CN109709251A | 苓桂术甘汤指纹图谱的检测方法 | 16 |
| 9 | CN103698413A | 栀子厚朴汤颗粒HPLC指纹图谱的建立方法及其标准指纹图谱 | 16 |
| 10 | CN107356691A | 建曲指纹图谱的检测方法 | 13 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations within this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial importance.
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 numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the trend, concentration and technology data above.
Activity has settled, not stalled
Filings peaked at 27 in 2021 and stood at 22 by 2024. That is a real pullback from the peak, but 22 annual filings is still close to the 2017 starting level of 18 — this reads as a maturing method space rather than an exiting one.
A moderate concentration with a long tail
The top 5 assignees account for 30.0% of all 213 records and the top 10 for 45.1%. More than half of the field sits outside the ranked leaders — plenty of single- and low-filing entrants have built specific fingerprint methods for individual products.
A largely domestic filing footprint
Of the receiving offices recorded, 206 are Chinese against 2 each for Japan, the US and ZA, and 1 for the EPO. Freedom-to-operate risk outside China is currently low on paper, but that also means little precedent exists yet for examiners in other jurisdictions evaluating similar claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chromatographic fingerprinting for quality control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
The ranked leaders are pharmaceutical manufacturers and TCM research institutes; co-filing pairs show which of them work jointly on fingerprint methods.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 21 records, well clear of the fifth-place holder at 7 and tenth place at 5 — a steep drop-off after the leader rather than a smooth gradient.
Manufacturer-institute pairs dominate joint filing
The strongest co-assignee pair shares 16 records, well ahead of the next two pairs at 7 each. These pairings tend to combine a pharmaceutical manufacturer with a research institute, suggesting fingerprint method development is often outsourced to or co-developed with a specialist lab.
Momentum has cooled across tracked assignees
None of the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum show growth: filings sit at zero or are declining, including a -50% and a -100% year-on-year change among two active filers. This is consistent with the post-2021 pullback rather than a sign any one player has exited the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Guangdong Yifang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 1 | -50% |
| Nanjing Haichang Chinese Medicine Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Haisheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Dihon Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Hongdian Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shaanxi University of Science and Technology | 0 | -100% |
| Nanjing Zhongshan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a few concrete next steps depending on what you are trying to decide.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader
With one assignee holding 21 records against a fifth-place holder at 7, any new filing in this space should be checked specifically against the leader's claim scope before assuming open ground.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaWatch the chemometric-software edge
G06F and G06K appear in only one record each so far, but they mark where fingerprint analysis is starting to overlap with data-processing claims — an area worth monitoring before it becomes contested.
Track this branch in EurekaReassess as 2025–2026 data fills in
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent post-2021 pullback should be revisited once the most recent two years are more fully indexed.
Set an alert in EurekaCommon questions about this patent set
In this dataset, it means a filing describing how a chromatogram is built, validated and used to confirm batch-to-batch consistency of a formulated product, typically through similarity evaluation, reference-chromatogram comparison, peak assignment or chemometric analysis. Nearly all 213 records in scope fall under IPC subclass G01N, covering material analysis and testing, which confirms the field is defined by analytical method claims rather than by the drug substance itself. A smaller share also touches A61K or A61P where the fingerprint method is tied to a specific medicinal preparation or therapeutic use.
Filing is concentrated among traditional Chinese medicine manufacturers and research institutes rather than instrument makers. The top-ranked assignee holds 21 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 7 and tenth place at 5, and the top 5 assignees together account for 30.0% of all 213 records in scope. Beyond the top 10, which holds 45.1% combined, the field has a long tail of entrants with one or two filings each, often tied to a single named product.
Filings rose from 18 in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2021, then eased to 22 by 2024, a -19% change over that three-year span. That is a real pullback from the peak but not a collapse, since 22 filings a year is still close to the 2017 level. The 2025 and 2026 figures shown in any trend chart will understate true activity because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in G01N with only single-record footholds in B01J, G06F and G06K, meaning chemometric software tied to fingerprint similarity scoring, and any linkage to catalytic process control, are barely claimed yet. Cross-border method-transfer validation is another thin area: 206 of the receiving-office filings are Chinese, versus single-digit counts in Japan, the US, ZA and the EPO. A first claim in the software-linked branch would likely need to tie a specific automated peak-recognition or scoring algorithm to the fingerprint-generation method rather than claiming the chromatographic method alone.
US20250067710A1, filed by Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, claims a specific method for constructing a fingerprint of Xin Su Ning capsule batches using a defined extraction, gradient-elution HPLC run over 0–140 minutes, import into a similarity-evaluation system, and follow-up mass spectral analysis. It blocks close copies of that exact sequence applied to that product, not chromatographic fingerprinting generally. Anyone designing a fingerprint method for a different formulation, a different elution window, or without the mass-spectral confirmation step is working outside its literal claim scope, though a full claim-by-claim comparison is needed before relying on that gap.
Research Chromatographic Fingerprinting for Quality Control in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole chromatographic fingerprinting for quality control 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.