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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/melt-and-antisolvent-crystallization-routes-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Crystallization & EvaporationMelt and Antisolvent Crystallization Patents: Who Leads and Where Filings Concentrate
- Top 5 filers hold 34.6% of the field. 349 of 1,009 records sit with just five assignees, and the top 10 combined reach 53.5% — a steep concentration for a process-chemistry category.
- Filing activity peaked in 2023 at 123 records before easing to 39 in 2024 (a 62% drop from 2021's 103), though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in given the usual 18-month publication lag.
- C07D heterocyclics dominate the claim space at 60.2% of all records, with B01D separation processes (11.0%) and B01J catalytic processes (3.8%) markedly thinner — signalling where process claims are less crowded.
1,009
Published Records
35%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-62%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (103 records) with 2024 (39) — 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 1,009 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 dataset tracks patent activity at the intersection of melt, antisolvent and cooling crystallization with the process controls that make those routes commercially usable: polymorph control, impurity rejection, sweating steps, solvent selection, chiral resolution and oiling-out avoidance. It spans 1,009 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from receiving offices led by the United States, the EPO and WIPO's PCT track.
The records lean heavily pharmaceutical: the two largest IPC subclasses are heterocyclic compounds and medicinal preparations, and several of the most-cited records concern solid-form and microencapsulation work rather than bulk industrial crystallizer design. That skews the field toward active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) purification and solid-form selection rather than commodity chemical separation.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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 1,009 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below add to more than 100%.
Filing trend: rise, peak, and an incomplete tail
Annual filings climbed from 58 in 2017 to a peak of 123 in 2023, then recorded 39 in 2024 — a 62% decline from 2021's 103. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures shown are still incomplete and should not be read as a genuine slowdown yet.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C07D (heterocyclic compounds) and A61K (medicinal preparations) each cover roughly half or more of all records, confirming the field's pharmaceutical center of gravity. B01D separation processes and B01J catalytic/physical processes sit well below 15%, marking the process-engineering side of crystallization as comparatively under-claimed relative to the chemistry side.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,009 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 Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Records that anchor the citation graph
Representative Filing
Method for the Manufacture of a Polyhydroxy-Carboxylic Acid
SULZER CHEMTECH AG
A ring-opening polymerization route to high molecular weight polylactic acid, followed by devolatization to strip lactide and low-boiling impurities from the raw polymer as a gas-phase stream, with condensation used to recover and separate the impurities out of that stream.Filed by Sulzer Chemtech AG — illustrates how purification-by-devolatization claims sit adjacent to, but distinct from, solution-based antisolvent and cooling crystallization routes.
Most-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020160109A1 | Microencapsulation of drugs by solvent exchange | 198 |
| 2 | WO2012097000A1 | Processes for preparing isoquinolinones and solid forms of isoquinolinones | 151 |
| 3 | US5420304A | Method to produce cyclic esters | 124 |
| 4 | US6599627B2 | Microencapsulation of drugs by solvent exchange | 118 |
| 5 | US20120184568A1 | Processes for preparing isoquinolinones and solid forms of isoquinolinones | 110 |
| 6 | US6596901B1 | Method for purifying acrylic acid and methacrylic acid | 96 |
| 7 | US5831124A | Purification of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid | 94 |
| 8 | US9809579B2 | Substituted 3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexanes as ketohexokinase inhibitors | 82 |
| 9 | US6767637B2 | Microencapsulation using ultrasonic atomizers | 74 |
| 10 | US6448439B1 | Method for producing acrylic acid and methacrylic acid | 70 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favour older filings and indicate influence on later drafting, not current commercial importance.
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 Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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 concentration and citation data signal
Read together, the assignee ranking, citation list and co-filing pairs point to a field where pharmaceutical solid-form work has been claimed early and repeatedly, while separation-process engineering has drawn far fewer filings.
Concentration
34.6%
held by top 5 of 1,009 records
Filing sits with a small leading group
The top 5 assignees combined account for 349 of the 1,009 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 53.5%. That is a tight cluster for a process-chemistry field, and it means a large share of the crystallization know-how here has already been reduced to claims by a handful of pharmaceutical filers.
Based on the full 100-company ranking
Citation influence
198 citations
on the leading cited record
Older microencapsulation art still anchors the field
The most-cited record in this corpus, on microencapsulation of drugs by solvent exchange, has drawn 198 citations — well ahead of the next tier. Because citation counts favour older filings, this signals foundational influence on later drafting rather than current commercial weight.
Citation counts favour older records
Co-filing
10 pairs
co-assignee pairs identified
Collaboration is thin and pairwise
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing tied to a pharmaceutical-biotech collaboration. Most filings in this space are single-assignee, which is consistent with a field driven by in-house formulation and process teams rather than joint ventures.
Strongest pair by co-filing frequency
Momentum
-100% YoY
for several leading filers in the latest year
Recent-year activity has gone quiet at the top
Several of the largest historical filers show zero filings in the latest tracked year, some with a -100% year-on-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reflects incomplete recent data as much as any real pullback, but it is worth monitoring as the record set fills in.
Subject to publication-lag revision
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 melt and antisolvent crystallization routes, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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
The assignee landscape
A ranking of 100 companies drawn from the full assignee list behind these 1,009 records — not a curated top-50 or top-100 cut, but the entirety of what the underlying data endpoint returns for this search.
Leader
108 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
A single filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's 108 records put it clearly ahead of fifth place (51) and tenth place (30), the steepest single gap in the ranking. That gap suggests one organisation has built a deliberate, sustained filing program around crystallization process control rather than opportunistic filing.
Compared against fifth and tenth place
Mid-tier
51 to 30
records across 5th-10th place
A dense mid-tier below the leader
Between fifth place (51 records) and tenth place (30 records), filing volume tapers gradually rather than falling off a cliff, indicating a genuine second tier of active filers rather than a single leader and a long flat tail.
Fifth vs tenth place in the ranking
Long tail
46.5%
of records held outside the top 10
Nearly half the field sits outside the top 10
With the top 10 combined at 53.5% of all 1,009 records, the remaining 46.5% is spread across the other 90 ranked assignees. That is room for smaller specialty-pharma and process-licensing filers to still stake out defensible positions.
Remainder after top 10 combined share
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sulzer Management AG | 0 | — |
| Pfizer Inc | 0 | — |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG | 0 | -100% |
| Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc | 0 | — |
| Amgen Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Damian Pharma AG | 0 | -100% |
| Sulzer Chemtech AG | 0 | — |
| PTC Therapeutics Inc | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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 figures above establish concentration and composition; the next step is usually claim-level comparison against a specific process route or a freedom-to-operate check against the leading assignees.
Map claims against your own process route
Cross-reference the melt, antisolvent and cooling crystallization claims held by the leading assignees against the specific step in your process — sweating, solvent exchange, or chiral resolution — to see where existing claims actually read on your work.
Explore claims in EurekaTrack the mid-tier filers, not just the leader
The gap between fifth and tenth place is gradual rather than steep, which means several organisations below the top rank are worth watching for freedom-to-operate purposes, not just the single leader.
Build a watch list in EurekaRevisit the 2025-2026 trend once it fills in
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, any conclusion about a slowdown after 2024 is premature. Re-run this view in a future cut before drawing conclusions about declining activity.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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 this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked list with 108 records, well ahead of fifth place at 51 and tenth place at 30. The top 5 assignees combined hold 34.6% of all 1,009 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 53.5%, so filing is concentrated but not monopolised by a single company. The remaining 46.5% is spread across 90 further ranked assignees, leaving meaningful room for smaller filers.
Filing rose from 58 records in 2017 to a peak of 123 in 2023, then recorded 39 in 2024, a 62% decline from 2021's 103. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in this dataset are still incomplete and cannot yet be read as a real slowdown. The honest read is that 2023 marks the confirmed peak so far, with the true trajectory of 2024 onward still resolving.
Heterocyclic compounds (IPC class C07D) appear in 60.2% of all 1,009 records, and medicinal preparations (A61K) in 50.5%, confirming that most filing activity is pharmaceutical rather than industrial-bulk chemistry. Therapeutic activity classifications (A61P) cover 40.3% of records. Separation-process classes such as B01D (11.0%) and B01J (3.8%) are comparatively thin, suggesting the process-engineering side of crystallization is less densely claimed than the chemistry side.
US20130331543A1, assigned to Sulzer Chemtech AG, claims a method for manufacturing polylactic acid that combines ring-opening polymerization with a devolatization step to strip lactide and other low-boiling impurities from the raw polymer as a gas-phase stream, then condenses and separates those impurities out. It is a purification-by-evaporation route rather than a solution-based antisolvent or cooling crystallization method, so it sits adjacent to, rather than squarely inside, the antisolvent and cooling crystallization claims that dominate this dataset. Anyone designing a devolatization-based impurity removal step for polyhydroxy-carboxylic acids should review its claim scope directly.
The technology composition data shows B01D separation processes and B01J catalytic/physical processes each cover well under 15% of records, far below the 50-60% coverage of the core pharmaceutical chemistry classes. That gap points to under-claimed ground in areas like sweating-step process control, oiling-out suppression, and solvent-selection screening workflows, where the chemistry is well-documented in the corpus but the process engineering around it has drawn comparatively few filings.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Melt and Antisolvent Crystallization Routes 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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Go past this page: query the whole melt and antisolvent crystallization routes corpus yourself, in your own scope.
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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.