Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2020 at 46 records, then fell sharply — 27 filings in 2021 dropped to 7 by 2024, a 74% decline over that span.
- The top 5 assignees hold 46.9% of all 294 records, and the top 10 push that to 67.0% — this is a concentrated field, not a fragmented one.
- 92.2% of records sit in C12M (bioreactor apparatus), but 14.6% cross into B01D separation and 5.8% into B33Y additive manufacturing — the overlap zones are thinner.
Filing growth compares 2021 (27 records) with 2024 (7) — 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 294 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Hollow-fiber bioreactor mixing control sits at the intersection of perfusion culture hardware and the fluid-dynamics parameters — mixing time, power input, impeller speed, shear rate, dead zones and flow pattern — that determine whether cells inside the fiber bed actually see uniform conditions. The scope here pulls together 294 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine hollow-fiber or perfusion bioreactor claims with at least one of those mixing-control terms, classified under bioreactor, filtration or microorganism-culture IPC codes.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity; 2024 is the most recent year this page treats as complete.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 294-record dataset: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: rise, peak, retreat
Filings climbed from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 46 in 2020, then declined — 27 in 2021 down to 7 in 2024, a 74% drop across that three-year window. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a continued slide.
Where the claims sit
C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus) covers 92.2% of the 294 records, confirming this is fundamentally a hardware-classified field. C12N (microorganism/genetic engineering) appears in 42.5%, reflecting the biological payload side, while B01D separation processes (14.6%), A61K medicinal preparations (8.5%) and B33Y additive manufacturing (5.8%) mark the smaller adjacent branches where fiber-bed hardware meets other disciplines.
Shares are the percentage of the 294 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor Mixing Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hollow-fiber bioreactor mixing control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
SG11202114345YA — Production of extracellular vesicles from stem cells
Filed by Technion Research and Development Foundation and published 2022-01-28, this record describes methods for producing extracellular vesicles from stem cells in bioreactor culture — an example of how mixing-control claims extend into downstream biological output rather than stopping at the vessel hardware itself.Abstract summarised from the published record; see the full filing for exact claim language.
View full record in Eureka| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160288414A1 | Bioprinter and methods of using same | 186 |
| 2 | WO2015061907A1 | Devices and methods for three-dimensional tissue culturing | 100 |
| 3 | US20160282338A1 | Compositions and methods for making and using three-dimensional issue systems | 79 |
| 4 | US20130059371A1 | Device, System and Process for Modification or Concentration of Cell-depleted Fluid | 57 |
| 5 | US9109193B2 | Continuous perfusion bioreactor system | 55 |
| 6 | US20120035742A1 | Methods, Devices and Systems for Bone Tissue Engineering Using a Bioreactor | 53 |
| 7 | WO2019122239A1 | Bioreactor and related methods | 51 |
| 8 | US20170321178A1 | Three-dimensional bioreactor for cell expansion and related applications | 48 |
| 9 | US20200248121A1 | Packed-bed bioreactor systems and methods of using the same | 42 |
| 10 | US20200248124A1 | Methods of culturing cells on woven cell culture substrates and bioreactors using the same | 37 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to be cited; treat this as a signal of influence within the corpus, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The top of the field is dense
With the leader alone accounting for 43 records and the fifth-ranked assignee still holding 17, new entrants are filing into claim space that a small number of players have already staked out repeatedly. A long tail of single- and low-filing entities fills out the remaining 77 ranked assignees.
Peak activity has passed, but read it carefully
The 2020 peak of 46 filings was followed by a steady decline to 7 in 2024. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures are not yet reliable evidence of a continued slowdown — but the 2021-2024 window is complete and the drop is real.
Separation and additive-manufacturing overlaps are thinner
Only 14.6% of the 294 records touch B01D separation processes and just 5.8% touch B33Y additive manufacturing, against 92.2% sitting in core C12M bioreactor apparatus. Claims that bridge mixing control with fiber-membrane separation or 3D-printed scaffold geometry are comparatively rare.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hollow-fiber bioreactor mixing control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranking spans 77 assignees, all counted in records, from a small concentrated leadership group to a long tail of single-filing entrants. Momentum has cooled across the named leaders' most recent reported year, consistent with the field-wide decline after 2020.
Widest single filing base
The top-ranked assignee holds 43 of the 294 records in scope, more than double the fifth-place holder's 17 — a gap that marks genuine dominance rather than a narrow lead.
Academic co-filing runs deep
Among 10 identified co-assignee pairs, the strongest ties link one individual inventor-assignee to two separate collaborators at 12 shared records each — a pattern typical of university lab groups filing jointly across projects.
Two-thirds of the field in ten hands
Extending the count to the top 10 assignees captures 67.0% of all records, meaning freedom-to-operate work in this space is realistically a review of a short, named list rather than a fragmented search.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corning Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Southwest Research Institute | 0 | — |
| Univercells SA | 0 | -100% |
| RADISIC MILICA | 0 | — |
| Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd | 0 | — |
| The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York | 0 | — |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG | 0 | — |
| ZHANG BOYANG | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated leadership group and a cooling filing rate, but the detailed claim boundaries and the open branches need closer reading than any summary table gives.
Map the top 10 assignees' actual claim scope
Concentration figures show where filings sit, not what each claim actually covers or where it can be designed around.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches over time
Thin overlap today does not mean thin overlap next year; watch B01D and B33Y cross-filings as they develop.
Set up monitoring in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 43 of the 294 records in scope, with the fifth-ranked assignee at 17 and the tenth at 9. The top 5 assignees combined account for 46.9% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 67.0%, so the field is concentrated among a small number of named filers rather than spread evenly across the full 77-assignee ranking. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work here can prioritise reviewing that short list before widening the search.
Filings rose from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 46 in 2020, then declined to 27 in 2021 and 7 by 2024 — a 74% drop across that three-year window, which is the most recent period the data treats as complete. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 counts are still filling in and should not be read as proof the decline is continuing. Taken together, the pattern looks like a filing wave that crested around 2020 and has since retreated from its peak.
Within the 294 records in scope, 92.2% carry a C12M bioreactor-apparatus classification and 42.5% also touch C12N microorganism or genetic-engineering codes, reflecting the biological payload side of these systems. Smaller overlaps exist with B01D separation processes (14.6%), A61K medicinal preparations (8.5%), B33Y additive manufacturing (5.8%) and A61F implants (5.1%). Since a single record can carry multiple classes, these figures add to more than 100% and should each be read against the 294-record total, not against each other.
The technology composition data shows the core C12M bioreactor classification dominant at 92.2% of records, while adjacent branches like B01D separation, B33Y additive manufacturing and A61F implants sit in the single-digit-to-mid-teens percentages. That gap suggests claims that specifically bridge mixing-control parameters with fiber-membrane separation geometry, 3D-printed scaffold design, or implant-grade housing are comparatively under-claimed relative to the crowded core hardware space. A first claim there would need to tie a measurable mixing parameter, such as shear rate or dead-zone location, directly to one of those adjacent structural features.
SG11202114345YA, filed by Technion Research and Development Foundation and published 2022-01-28, covers methods for producing extracellular vesicles from stem cells using bioreactor culture. It is representative of filings that extend hollow-fiber bioreactor claims beyond vessel hardware into a specific downstream biological output. Anyone working on vesicle-harvesting methods from perfusion or hollow-fiber systems should review this filing's claim scope directly rather than relying on the abstract alone.
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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.