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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/cryopreservation-and-formulation-of-cells-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Cell Therapy ManufacturingCryopreservation and Formulation of Cells: Patents Shaping Post-Thaw Viability
- Filings peaked in 2022 at 52 and dropped roughly 70% between 2021 (44) and 2024 (13), the last year with a complete publication record.
- The top five assignees hold 30.9% of all 682 records while the tenth-ranked filer sits at just 20 — a steep drop-off after the leader's 57.
- A61K and C12N each touch roughly half the dataset (47.9% and 46.6% of 682 records), showing cryoprotectant formulation and cell-engineering claims are tightly intertwined.
682
Published Records
31%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-70%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (44 records) with 2024 (13) — 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 682 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent filings at the intersection of cell cryopreservation and formulation science — controlled-rate freezing, cryoprotectant chemistry (including DMSO-free approaches), ice nucleation control, container closure systems, thaw protocols and post-thaw viability. The scope spans 682 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search string that pairs process terms (freezing, storage temperature) with outcome and packaging terms (viability, toxicity, closure).
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, figures for 2025 and 2026 will keep filling in as later applications publish; 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a settled data point.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 682 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 49 in 2017 to a peak of 52 in 2022, then fell to 13 by 2024 — a decline of about 70% across the 2021-2024 span. The 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuing drop.
IPC subclass composition
A61K (medicinal preparations) and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) each appear in close to half of all 682 records, followed by A01N (biocides/agrochemicals) at 41.6%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 682 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cryopreservation and formulation of cells and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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Most-cited records and a representative filing
Representative Filing
US20220264871A1 — Cell cryopreservation solution and method for cryopreserving cells
BOE REGENERATIVE MEDICINE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
A method for cryopreserving cells, a cell cryopreservation solution and a composition are provided. The method includes providing a suspension for the cells to be cryopreserved in a cell cryopreservation solution, and cryopreserving the suspension. The cell cryopreservation solution includes dimethyl sulfoxide, plasma, citric acid, sodium citrate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate or sodium dihydrogen phosphate, glucose and adenine.Filed by BOE Regenerative Medicine Technology Co., Ltd. and published 2022-08-25, this filing is representative of a common formulation pattern in the dataset: a DMSO-based solution built around buffered salts and a sugar source rather than a DMSO-free approach.
Highest-citation records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090017000A1 | Preparation of inactivated artificial antigen presenting cells and their use in cell therapies | 151 |
| 2 | US5919614A | Composition comprising three platelet lesion inhibitors for platelet storage | 150 |
| 3 | US5629145A | Cryopreservation of cell suspensions | 127 |
| 4 | US20090130756A1 | Cryopreservation of cells using cross-linked bioactive hydrogel matrix particles | 112 |
| 5 | US20150204598A1 | Portable cryogenic workstation | 109 |
| 6 | WO1993014191A1 | Method of freezing cells and cell-like materials | 104 |
| 7 | US20100216110A1 | Method for ice-free cryopreservation of tissue | 72 |
| 8 | US20050158699A1 | Cryopreservation of plant cells | 63 |
| 9 | WO2019094253A1 | Means and method for preparing viral vectors and uses of same | 62 |
| 10 | WO1991001635A2 | Cooling process and apparatus | 57 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a measure of influence on later filings, not as a signal of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once concentration, timing and classification are read together.
Concentration
30.9% of 682 records
held by top 5 assignees
The top of the field is settled, the rest is fragmented
The leading assignee holds 57 records against a fifth-place figure of 27 and a tenth-place figure of 20 — a fast taper rather than a plateau. Combined, the top 10 account for 46.8% of all 682 records, meaning well over half the field is spread across 90 further ranked entities, many likely single-digit filers.
Assignee ranking, 100 companies
Momentum
-70% (2021→2024)
filing decline, complete years only
Peak activity has passed, but the drop is measured, not assumed
Filings rose from 49 in 2017 to a peak of 52 in 2022, then fell to 13 by 2024, a documented three-year decline of roughly 70%. That contraction sits inside the window of complete data; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in and should not be added to this trend line yet.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Classification overlap
47.9% + 46.6%
A61K and C12N share of 682 records
Formulation chemistry and cell engineering are filed together, not separately
Nearly half of all records touch A61K (medicinal preparations) and nearly half touch C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering), which given the multi-class nature of the data implies most cryopreservation filings pair a formulation claim with a cell-handling or genetic-engineering claim rather than filing either alone.
IPC composition, 8 subclasses tracked
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cryopreservation and formulation of cells, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranking spans 100 companies and research institutions; a handful set the pace while momentum among the largest filers has largely flattened in the most recent complete year.
Leader
57 records
top-ranked assignee
A single filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's 57 records are more than double the fifth-place total of 27, and nearly triple the tenth-place figure of 20 — a gap wide enough that displacing the leader on volume alone is unlikely for new entrants.
Assignee ranking
Recent momentum
0% YoY
at several top assignees
Leading filers have gone quiet, not necessarily left the field
Several of the most active historical assignees show flat or zero year-on-year movement in the latest tracked year, and one shows a -100% YoY drop. That reads as a pause in publication rather than withdrawal, given the 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee relationships found
Co-filing is rare and concentrated in one relationship
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pair by a wide margin links two related corporate entities at 8 shared records; most other pairs sit at 2-4 shared records, indicating that co-development is the exception rather than the norm in this field.
Co-assignee pairs
Recent-year filing momentum
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited | 1 | 0% |
| Novartis AG | 1 | 0% |
| Regents of the University of Minnesota | 1 | — |
| Shire Human Genetic Therapies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Instil Bio UK Limited | 0 | — |
| Microvascular Tissues, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Janssen Pharmaceutica NV | 0 | — |
| PHYTON INC | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The concentration and classification patterns above point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new filing.
Map claim scope against the ranked leaders
With 46.8% of records held by the top 10 of 100 ranked assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start with those filers' independent claims before surveying the long tail.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches for a first-filing position
DMSO-free formulation and ice-nucleation control show thinner direct coverage than the core A61K/C12N overlap, which is where a narrowly drafted first claim has the best odds of standing alone.
Run a white space search in EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 publication catch-up
Because the 2021-2024 decline is the only complete trend available, re-running this search in six to twelve months will reveal whether filing activity is genuinely down or simply still publishing.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on cryopreservation patents
The dataset ranks 100 assignees, and the leader holds 57 of the 682 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 27 and the tenth-place assignee at 20. The top five combined account for 30.9% of all records, and the top ten for 46.8%, which means over half the field is spread thinly across the remaining 90 ranked entities. This concentration pattern is typical of a field with a few large pharmaceutical and biotech filers alongside many smaller or single-filing entrants.
Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 52 records and had fallen to 13 by 2024, a roughly 70% decline over that three-year span using only complete-year data. The 2025 and 2026 figures are not yet reliable because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so recent applications are still working through the pipeline. Treat the 2021-2024 decline as the current signal rather than assuming the trend continues into the present year.
Most representative filings in this dataset, including the featured BOE Regenerative Medicine filing, use dimethyl sulfoxide as the core cryoprotectant alongside buffered salts and a sugar source such as glucose. DMSO-free formulation appears in the search scope but shows comparatively thinner direct coverage, making it one of the areas flagged as under-claimed relative to the dominant DMSO-based approach. Anyone evaluating a DMSO-free formulation should check this branch specifically rather than assuming the same density of prior art as the DMSO-based core.
A61K (medicinal preparations) and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) each appear in close to half of the 682 records, at 47.9% and 46.6% respectively, indicating that formulation chemistry and cell-handling or genetic-engineering claims are usually filed together. A01N (biocides and agrochemicals) follows at 41.6%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than partition the dataset, so a filing strategy should expect examiners to search across all three classes together.
Sub-areas such as DMSO-free cryoprotectant systems, ice nucleation control agents, container closure integrity testing, automated thaw protocol devices and post-thaw potency assay methods show comparatively thin direct coverage against the dense core of formulation and freezing claims. These branches sit adjacent to the heavily filed A61K and C12N space but are not saturated in the same way. A narrowly drafted claim in one of these areas has a better chance of standing without running into the dense prior art that dominates the core formulation claims.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cryopreservation and Formulation of Cells covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.