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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/hollow-fiber-bioreactor-gas-transfer-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · BioprocessingHollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer Patents: Who Files, Where the Gaps Sit
- Five assignees hold 60.7% of the field. 108 of 178 records in scope sit with the top five filers, and the ranked leader alone accounts for 38 records — this is a concentrated space, not an open one.
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 22 records and has not returned. 2021-to-2024 filings fell 67%, from 6 to 2, though 2025-26 counts are still filling in as publication catches up with filing.
- 95.5% of records sit in bioreactor apparatus claims (C12M). Separation-process claims (B01D, 8.4%) and body-fluid device claims (A61M, 10.7%) are comparatively thin, pointing to where gas-transfer hardware claims remain open.
178
Published Records
61%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-67%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 178 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Hollow-fiber bioreactor gas transfer sits at the intersection of cell-culture apparatus and mass-transport engineering: patents here claim how oxygen and CO2 move across fiber walls, how gas holdup and bubble diameter are controlled at a given superficial velocity, and how exhaust gas is managed in perfusion systems. The search scope combines apparatus terms with transfer-specific language, which pulls in both dedicated bioreactor hardware filings and adjacent tissue-engineering and biologics-manufacturing applications that rely on the same gas-exchange mechanics.
178 published records fall within scope from 2015 through the mid-2026 cut-off. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity and should be read as provisional rather than a real decline.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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 Data
Filing trend and technical composition
Two views of the same 178 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then contraction
Filings rose to a peak of 22 in 2017 and have not matched that level since. The 2021-to-2024 window shows a 67% drop, from 6 records to 2 — the clearest complete-year comparison the data supports. Treat 2025 and 2026 counts as undercounted rather than as confirmation the field is shrinking further.
Technology composition: apparatus claims dominate
C12M bioreactor and enzyme-apparatus claims appear in 95.5% of the 178 records, making it the near-universal classification for this scope. C12N microorganism/genetic-engineering claims follow at 34.8%, with therapeutic, implant and separation-process classes each present in a tenth or less of records — a sign that gas-transfer hardware claims are being written broadly, while downstream application-specific claims remain comparatively sparse.
Shares are the percentage of the 178 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 Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hollow-fiber bioreactor gas transfer and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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The most-cited records in this scope
Representative Recent Filing
WO2024079608A1 — Perfusion bioreactor tangential flow filtration
ASTRAZENECA AB
Provided herein are systems and methods of enhancing recovery of a product using constant pressure and/or low flow rate tangential flow filtration.Filed by AstraZeneca, published April 2024 — one of the few recent-year filings in this scope with an active assignee.
Highest-citation records, 2015–2026
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6197575B1 | Vascularized perfused microtissue/micro-organ arrays | 776 |
| 2 | US6218182B1 | Method for culturing three-dimensional tissue in diffusion gradient bioreactor and use thereof | 180 |
| 3 | US20110033887A1 | Three-Dimensional Microfabricated Bioreactors with Embedded Capillary Network | 133 |
| 4 | US6979308B1 | Bioreactor design and process for engineering tissue from cells | 121 |
| 5 | US6022742A | Culture device and method | 105 |
| 6 | US6214574B1 | Cross-flow filtration and culture method | 104 |
| 7 | WO2018011805A2 | Systems and methods for growing cells in vitro | 87 |
| 8 | US6127141A | Culture device and method | 84 |
| 9 | US20060258000A1 | Use of steady-state oxygen gradients to modulate animal cell functions | 78 |
| 10 | US20110117538A1 | Bioreactors for fermentation and related methods | 76 |
Citation counts favour older records simply by virtue of exposure time; read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking 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 Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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 numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the concentration, trend and classification figures are read together.
Concentration
60.7%
of 178 records held by top 5 assignees
The field is claimed narrowly at the top
Five assignees account for 108 of the 178 records in scope, and the leading assignee alone holds 38. A long tail of single- and few-filing entrants fills the remainder of the 47-company ranking, which means new entrants are competing for space around a small number of dominant claim sets rather than into open ground.
Based on the full 47-company assignee ranking.
Momentum
-67%
filing change, 2021 to 2024
Activity has cooled from its 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 22 in 2017 and the most recent complete comparison — 2021's 6 records against 2024's 2 — shows a 67% drop. Several of the historically largest filers show zero activity in the latest tracked year, though 2025-26 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag.
2025 and later years will revise upward as publications catch up.
Composition
95.5%
of records classified under C12M
Apparatus claims crowd one subclass
Almost every record in scope carries a C12M bioreactor-apparatus classification, while separation-process claims (B01D, 8.4%) and body-fluid device claims (A61M, 10.7%) are comparatively rare. That imbalance suggests hardware-level gas-transfer claims are well covered, but claims tying transfer mechanics to specific separation or fluid-handling implementations are less contested.
Class shares sum to more than 100% because records can carry multiple IPC classes.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hollow-fiber bioreactor gas transfer, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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
Who's Filing
Assignee landscape and where the field is open
The ranking covers 47 companies across the full 178-record dataset. Filing is concentrated at the top, but the technical sub-areas below remain thinly claimed.
Leader
38 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
One filer sets the pace
The leading assignee's 38 records are more than four times the fifth-place holder's count of 9, establishing a clear reference point for prior art searches in this space before any competitive filing strategy is set.
Counted in records, not families.
Mid-tier
9 records
fifth-place assignee
A defined second tier
The gap between the leader and fifth place is wide, but the drop from fifth to tenth (4 records) is gentler, indicating a genuine mid-tier of active filers below the top name rather than a single-company field.
Top 10 combined hold 77.5% of all 178 records.
Momentum
0 in latest year
for several top-10 assignees
Historic leaders have gone quiet recently
Multiple assignees that built large portfolios earlier in the period show no filings in the latest tracked year, including a -100% year-on-year change for one major filer. This may reflect publication lag as much as an actual pullback.
Recent-year counts will revise as later publications are indexed.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| AstraZeneca AB | 1 | — |
| Univercells SA | 0 | -100% |
| Pluri Biotech Ltd | 0 | — |
| The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York | 0 | — |
| The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 0 | — |
| Corning Inc | 0 | — |
| Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc | 0 | — |
| Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The figures above frame the field; deciding where to file or challenge requires drilling into specific claim language.
Map claims against the top assignee's portfolio
With 38 records held by one filer, checking claim scope against that portfolio first narrows freedom-to-operate work considerably.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches as they mature
Sub-areas like gas holdup sensing and fiber-wall oxygen gradient modelling carry thinner claim density today, but that can shift quickly once a filer moves.
Set up monitoring in EurekaVerify recent-year activity as publications land
Because 2025-26 filings are still being published, re-running this scope periodically will reveal whether the 2021-2024 slowdown is holding or reversing.
Re-run this search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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 about this landscape
One assignee leads with 38 of the 178 records in scope, more than four times the count held by the fifth-ranked filer at 9. The top five assignees combined hold 108 records, or 60.7% of all records in scope, and the top ten hold 77.5%. That leaves a long tail across the remaining 37 ranked companies, most holding only a handful of records each.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 22 records and has trended down since, with the clearest complete-year comparison showing a 67% drop from 6 records in 2021 to 2 in 2024. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset pulled today are undercounts and should not be read as confirming a further decline.
Nearly all records, 95.5% of the 178 in scope, carry a C12M bioreactor-and-enzyme-apparatus classification, making it the near-universal category for this search. A substantial minority also touch C12N microorganism and genetic-engineering claims (34.8%), with smaller shares in implant, agrochemical, medicinal-preparation, body-fluid-device and separation-process classifications. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100%.
The core apparatus and microorganism classes are heavily claimed, but separation-process claims (B01D, 8.4% of records) and body-fluid device claims (A61M, 10.7%) are comparatively thin. Specific sub-areas — tangential-flow exhaust management, bubble-diameter control at low superficial velocity, and gas holdup sensing integrated into perfusion loops — show fewer dedicated filings relative to general bioreactor apparatus claims, suggesting room for narrowly drawn claims that tie transfer mechanics to specific hardware implementations.
WO2024079608A1, filed by AstraZeneca and published in April 2024, covers systems and methods for enhancing product recovery using constant-pressure or low-flow-rate tangential flow filtration in a perfusion bioreactor context. It is one of the few active recent-year filings in this scope, which is otherwise dominated by older, heavily cited records. Anyone designing perfusion-based recovery systems with tangential flow filtration should review its specific claim scope directly rather than relying on the abstract alone.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Gas Transfer 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.