Fibrin Sealant Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 24.1% of all 3,837 records in scope, and the leading ten hold 33.3% — a long tail of smaller filers fills the rest.
- Filing has cooled from its 2017 peak. Activity peaked at 193 records in 2017 and, on the last full comparison window, fell 45% from 86 records in 2021 to 47 in 2024.
- Sterilising and medicinal-preparation classes dominate. A61L and A61K each cover roughly half of all records, while devices for body fluids (A61M) sit at just 11.3% — a narrower, less-crowded claim space.
Filing growth compares 2021 (86 records) with 2024 (47) — 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 3,837 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Fibrin sealants and biological glues sit at the intersection of haemostasis, tissue adhesion and surgical device engineering. The search underlying this page combines core sealant terms — fibrin sealant, fibrin glue, biological sealant — with the technical parameters that actually distinguish one formulation or delivery system from another: thrombin concentration, spray applicator, setting time, burst strength, viral safety and storage condition. That combination surfaces the records where inventors are solving concrete performance problems, not just describing a sealant in passing.
The scope runs from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off and returns 3,837 published records. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate true filing activity and should be read as provisional rather than declining.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,837-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 193 records in 2017. The comparable full-year window shows a 45% drop from 86 records in 2021 to 47 in 2024; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) and A61K (medicinal preparations) each appear on close to half of all records, reflecting how tightly formulation and sterility claims are bundled in this field. A61M, covering devices for body fluids, appears on only 11.3% of records — a comparatively open device-side branch relative to the formulation side.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,837 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fibrin Sealants and Biological Glues with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fibrin sealants and biological glues and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative claim
US8821861B2 — Fibrin Sealant
A fibrin sealant comprising thrombin, fibrinogen, polyphosphate (polyP) and calcium, with the thrombin and fibrinogen kept separated prior to application.Filed by The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, granted 2014-09-02.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020127265A1 | Use of reinforced foam implants with enhanced integrity for soft tissue repair and regeneration | 1,503 |
| 2 | US5583114A | Adhesive sealant composition | 1,459 |
| 3 | US7009039B2 | Plasma protein matrices and methods for their preparation | 1,411 |
| 4 | US6852330B2 | Reinforced foam implants with enhanced integrity for soft tissue repair and regeneration | 1,386 |
| 5 | US6884428B2 | Use of reinforced foam implants with enhanced integrity for soft tissue repair and regeneration | 1,343 |
| 6 | US7371403B2 | Wound dressing and method for controlling severe, life-threatening bleeding | 1,138 |
| 7 | US7135027B2 | Devices and methods for mixing and extruding medically useful compositions | 1,097 |
| 8 | US6558390B2 | Methods and apparatus for performing therapeutic procedures in the spine | 984 |
| 9 | US20140163664A1 | Integrated system for the ballistic and nonballistic infixion and retrieval of implants with or without drug … | 965 |
| 10 | US8801801B2 | At least partially resorbable reticulated elastomeric matrix elements and methods of making same | 957 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat this as a map of foundational prior art rather than a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three signals worth acting on before drafting a new application in this space.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is fragmented
The five leading assignees hold 24.1% of all 3,837 records and the leading ten hold 33.3%, meaning two-thirds of the field is spread across a long tail of smaller filers. New entrants competing head-on with formulation claims from the leaders face dense prior art; those working adjacent to the leaders' core claims have more room.
Activity has cooled from its 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 193 records in 2017 and fell from 86 in 2021 to 47 in 2024, a 45% decline over the last comparable full-year window. This reads as a maturing formulation space rather than an abandoned one — later years are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates.
Formulation claims are crowded; device claims less so
A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) sits on 51.7% of records and A61K (medicinal preparations) on 48.7%, showing how tightly composition and sterility claims overlap. A61M, devices for handling body fluids, covers only 11.3% of records — a narrower branch where applicator and delivery-system claims carry less prior art to design around.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fibrin sealants and biological glues, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has gone quiet
The leading assignees built their positions years ago; recent-year filing activity across the named leaders has dropped to zero or near-zero, consistent with the field-wide slowdown rather than any single company's retreat.
A single filer holds the largest share
The top-ranked assignee holds 276 records, well ahead of fifth place at 113 and tenth place at 55 — a steep drop-off that marks the boundary between the established leaders and the long tail.
Leading assignees show no recent-year filings
Momentum tracking across the top-named assignees, including two with a recorded -100% year-on-year change, shows zero filings in the latest year. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, this signals a portfolio consolidation phase rather than exit from the field.
Corporate affiliates dominate joint filings
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset; the strongest, a pairing between two entities within the same corporate group, spans 143 records. Other recurring pairs link a corporate assignee with named individual inventors, suggesting founder-held IP later assigned into a company structure.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd | 0 | — |
| Baxter International Inc | 0 | — |
| Baxter Healthcare SA | 0 | — |
| Ethicon Inc | 0 | -100% |
| ANGIOTECH INT AG (CH) | 0 | — |
| Novartis AG | 0 | -100% |
| Medos International Sarl | 0 | — |
| ZymoGenetics Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or competitive tracking.
Map claims against the leading assignees' portfolios
With 24.1% of records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate check should start with their granted claims in A61L and A61K before drafting new formulation language.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest draft claims against under-claimed branches
Applicator geometry, delivery timing and lyophilised storage formulations show lower claim density than the core sterilisation and formulation classes, and may offer more defensible ground.
Run a whitespace search in EurekaTrack momentum for signs of renewed filing
Recent-year filings across the named leaders have dropped to zero; watching for the first new filings post-lag will show which assignee re-enters the space first.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about fibrin sealant patents
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by patent family count, and the leading assignee holds 276 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked entity at 113 and the tenth at 55. The top five combined account for 24.1% of all 3,837 records in scope, and the top ten for 33.3%. Beyond that leading group, ownership spreads across a long tail of smaller filers, so no single company controls the majority of the field.
Filing peaked at 193 records in 2017 and has since cooled, with the last comparable full-year window showing a 45% drop from 86 records in 2021 to 47 in 2024. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of further decline. The pattern is consistent with a formulation space that matured after an earlier wave of core patenting rather than one being abandoned.
The two largest IPC subclasses are A61L, sterilising and disinfecting, covering 51.7% of the 3,837 records, and A61K, medicinal preparations, covering 48.7%. Implants and prostheses (A61F), therapeutic activity (A61P), diagnosis and surgery (A61B), and genetic engineering (C12N) each cover meaningfully smaller shares. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping coverage, not a breakdown of distinct segments.
Relative to the crowded formulation and sterilisation classes, device-side branches such as spray applicator nozzle geometry, two-component delivery timing control, and burst-strength test standardisation show lower filing density, based on A61M's 11.3% share against A61L's 51.7%. These narrower branches carry less accumulated prior art and are worth checking closely before assuming a formulation-only strategy is the only path. A first claim in one of these branches would typically need to tie a specific mechanical or process parameter to a measurable performance outcome, rather than restate the sealant composition itself.
US8821861B2, assigned to The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and granted in 2014, covers a fibrin sealant made of thrombin, fibrinogen, polyphosphate (polyP) and calcium, with thrombin and fibrinogen kept separated until the point of application. That separation-until-application structure is the key mechanical feature, since it is what a two-component delivery system must work around. Anyone filing new two-component or applicator-based sealant claims should check this patent's specific separation and mixing language before assuming their own delivery mechanism is distinct.
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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.