NADPH Regeneration Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 55.9% of the field sits with five assignees. Top 5 combined account for 33 of the 59 records in scope — concentrated, but not a single dominant filer.
- Filing has roughly doubled since 2021. From 2 records in 2021 to 4 in 2024 (+100%), with 2020 still the peak year at 9 — recent years are undercounted due to publication lag.
- Nearly every record sits in two IPC subclasses. C12N and C12P each cover 96.6% of records, while adjacent classes like C07H sugars/nucleic acids sit at just 6.8%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 59 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent landscape covers
NADPH regeneration is the enzymatic or metabolic-engineering problem of keeping a reduced cofactor supply available for redox biocatalysis, so that a fermentation or in vitro enzymatic process does not stall once the native pool of NADPH is consumed. This landscape tracks 59 published records filed or published between 2015 and 2026 that combine cofactor regeneration language with biocatalysis, enzymatic conversion or microbial fermentation, restricted to C12N and C12P classification and excluding records framed around human therapy or diagnostic assay use.
The scope is deliberately narrow: it isolates the engineering of the regeneration step itself — phosphite dehydrogenase mutants, alternative cofactor-recycling enzyme systems, host-strain engineering for redox balance — rather than every patent that merely mentions NADPH in passing.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 59 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend: growth resumed after a mid-decade peak
Filings peaked at 9 in 2020, then eased before climbing again — 2021's 2 records rose to 2024's 4, a +100% move over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures will keep filling in as publication catches up with filing dates, so treat the tail of the trend as a floor, not a ceiling.
Technology composition: two subclasses dominate, others are thin
C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering) and C12P (fermentation & enzymatic synthesis) each appear in 96.6% of the 59 records — effectively every filing touches both. Hydrocarbon-adjacent classes C10G and the C12R/C12S index pair sit at 25.4% each, C07K (peptides & proteins) and C10L (fuels) at 13.6%, and C07H (sugars & nucleic acids) at just 6.8% — the thinnest-claimed branch in scope.
Shares are the percentage of the 59 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cofactor Regeneration Engineering — NADPH Regeneration Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cofactor regeneration engineering — nadph regeneration patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
US7364882B1 — Enzymatic reduction of a nitrile containing compound to the corresponding amine
Discloses a class of enzymes — nitrile oxido-reductases — that catalyze conversion of nitrile-containing compounds to the corresponding amine, offering the first biocatalytic route for reducing nitriles to amines and an alternative to harsh chemical reduction methods that generate hazardous waste.Filed by Scripps Research Institute; granted 2008-04-29.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2008028002A1 | Increasing nadph-dependent products | 31 |
| 2 | WO2006074194A2 | Engineered phosphite dehydrogenase mutants for nicotinamide cofactor regeneration | 20 |
| 3 | WO2004108912A2 | Phosphite dehydrogenase mutants for nicotinamide cofactor regeneration | 18 |
| 4 | WO2014037376A1 | Stereoselective biosynthesis in microbial host cells | 10 |
| 5 | WO2022204283A1 | Tropane alkaloid transporters and methods of making tropane alkaloids using the same | 8 |
| 6 | US7364882B1 | Enzymatic reduction of a nitrile containing compound to the corresponding amine | 8 |
| 7 | WO1996017940A2 | Method of desulfurization of fossil fuel with flavoprotein | 7 |
| 8 | WO1997011185A1 | DszD UTILIZATION IN DESULFURIZATION OF DBT BY RHODOCOCCUS sp. IGTS8 | 7 |
| 9 | WO2016053649A1 | Genetically modified microbes for the biological conversion of carbonaceous materials to p-aminobenzoic acid | 5 |
| 10 | US5985650A | Method of desulfurization of fossil fuel with flavoprotein | 5 |
Citation counts inside this searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not as evidence of current commercial importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about this field
Three readings of the same 59-record dataset, each pointing at a different decision a reader might need to make.
The field is concentrated but not cornered
Five assignees hold 33 of the 59 records (55.9%), and the top ten hold 49 (83.1%) — a steep concentration curve, but with the leader at only 11 records, no single filer has locked the space. The remaining records trail off into single- or double-filing entrants.
Growth resumed after the 2020 peak
Filing volume peaked at 9 records in 2020, dipped, then doubled again from 2021's 2 records to 2024's 4. That is enough to call renewed interest, though 2025–2026 figures will rise as publication lag closes.
Sugars and nucleic acid claims are thin
While C12N and C12P near-saturate the dataset at 96.6% each, C07H (sugars & nucleic acids) appears in only 4 of 59 records. That gap sits alongside fuller but still modest branches — C10L fuels and C07K peptides each at 13.6% — suggesting cofactor-recycling claims rarely extend into nucleic-acid-adjacent chemistry.
Filing is US- and PCT-anchored
The United States leads with 17 records, followed by WIPO/PCT filings at 14 and Europe at 7 — a pattern consistent with early-stage biocatalysis IP being filed nationally first and routed through PCT before regional entry into Australia, Canada or the UK.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cofactor regeneration engineering — nadph regeneration patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span industrial biotech, academic technology-transfer offices and individual named inventors — a mix that signals the field is still open to new entrants rather than owned by a handful of incumbents.
A modest lead, not a lock
The top-ranked assignee holds 11 of the 59 records in scope. That is a meaningful lead over fifth place (4 records) and tenth place (3), but it is far from a monopoly on the underlying claim space.
A long tail of narrow filers
Beyond the top ten, the ranking spreads across dozens of assignees with a handful of records each, including academic bodies and named individual inventors — typical of a field still driven by specific enzyme-engineering breakthroughs rather than platform-scale filing programs.
Filing is mostly solo, with a few tight pairings
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, several repeating at a strength of 3 co-filed records — consistent with university-industry or founder-company pairings rather than broad multi-party consortia.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Biosystems Corporation | 0 | — |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 0 | — |
| Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften eV | 0 | — |
| Creatus Biosciences Inc. | 0 | — |
| HYPHA DISCOVERY | 0 | — |
| Energy Biosystems Corporation | 0 | — |
| The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois | 0 | — |
| WOODYER RYAN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the reader is scoping freedom-to-operate, choosing where to file, or looking for licensing partners.
Check freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The five most-cited records, led by WO2008028002A1 at 31 citations, define the prior-art core that any new NADPH-regeneration claim will be examined against.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaWatch the leader's next filings
With no single assignee above 11 records, a new filing from the current leader or a fast-following academic group would be the clearest signal of where the field concentrates next.
Track assignee filing activity in EurekaDraft claims into the thinner branches
C07H sugars/nucleic acids and C10L fuel-adjacent claims sit well below the 96.6% saturation of the core C12N/C12P classes, leaving room for a first claim that is not immediately blocked.
Explore white space with EurekaCommon questions about NADPH regeneration patents
This landscape identifies 59 published records between 2015 and 2026 that combine NADPH regeneration or recycling language with biocatalysis, enzymatic conversion or microbial fermentation, filtered to C12N and C12P classification. The true worldwide total is larger once therapy- and diagnostic-framed filings and broader classification codes are included, but this scope isolates the engineering-focused subset. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years will keep rising as more records publish.
The ranking covers 43 assignees, with the leader holding 11 of the 59 records and the top five combined accounting for 55.9% of the field. That leaves a substantial long tail of academic institutions, industrial biotech firms and individually named inventors each holding a handful of records, so no single organisation controls the space outright. Anyone assessing competitive risk should look at the top ten as a group, which together hold 83.1% of records, rather than fixating on the single leader.
Almost every record in scope, 96.6% of the 59, falls under both C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis), meaning claims are overwhelmingly framed around engineered strains and enzymatic conversion processes. Secondary classes like C10G hydrocarbon oils and the C12R/C12S microorganism index each cover about a quarter of records, reflecting industrial fermentation applications. Thinner branches such as C07H sugars and nucleic acids, at 6.8%, indicate less-claimed adjacent chemistry.
Filing activity peaked at 9 records in 2020, eased afterward, and then showed renewed growth — rising from 2 records in 2021 to 4 in 2024, a 100% increase over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags the underlying filing date by around 18 months, so those years should not be read as a slowdown. Taken together, the pattern looks like a field with a genuine second wave of interest rather than one in decline.
US7364882B1, assigned to Scripps Research Institute, claims a class of nitrile oxido-reductase enzymes that convert nitrile-containing compounds directly to the corresponding amine, providing what the patent describes as the first biocatalytic route for that conversion. Anyone building a nitrile-to-amine biocatalytic process using a functionally similar oxido-reductase mechanism should review its claim scope closely, since it predates and may pre-empt narrower process claims in that specific reaction. It does not, however, cover the broader NADPH regeneration or cofactor-recycling mechanisms that most of the other records in this landscape address, so it is a targeted rather than a field-wide block.
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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.