Oncolytic Virus Therapy Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2018 at 11 records, then fell to a single filing at the 2022 midpoint before climbing again toward the 2026 cut-off — a field that stalled and is now re-accelerating.
- University and hospital assignees dominate the ranking, led by a single filer at 15 records against a fifth-place holder at 5 — academic IP, not corporate pipelines, still anchors this space.
- 85.7% of the 56 records sit in C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering), while only 10.7% touch G01N testing and 3.6% touch A01N — potency, titer and analytical-method claims are comparatively thin.
What the dataset covers
This landscape covers 56 published patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine oncolytic virus or virotherapy language with claims touching tumor-selective replication, antiviral immunity, intratumoral delivery, payload arming or manufacturing titer, classified under A61K35, C12N7 or A61P35. It is a deliberately narrow slice: the search string requires both the therapeutic framing and one of the mechanistic or manufacturing terms, so it captures records where the applicant has claimed something specific about how the virus is engineered, delivered or produced — not every oncolytic-virus filing in the broader literature.
The receiving-office split is heavily weighted to the United States, with Europe a distant second and Australia, Canada and the WIPO PCT route each contributing a handful of filings. That pattern is typical of academic-led filing: US priority followed by selective international extension rather than broad global filing from day one.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 56 records: when the filings happened, and which IPC subclasses they carry.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran hot in 2018 (11 records), cooled sharply through a 2022 midpoint of just 1 record, and have been climbing back since — with 2026 figures still partial given the roughly 18-month publication lag, so the most recent year understates true filing activity.
IPC subclass composition
C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering) appears in 85.7% of the 56 records and A61K (medicinal preparations) in 78.6%, confirming this is fundamentally a virus-engineering and formulation field. C07K (peptides & proteins) and A61P (therapeutic activity) each cover under half the records, and G01N (testing) and A01N (biocides) are minority classes — because a record can carry several IPC codes, these shares sum to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 56 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Oncolytic Virus Therapy with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about oncolytic virus therapy and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in scope
Biomarkers and combination therapies using oncolytic virus and immunomodulation
The invention disclosed herein describes biomarkers useful for prognosis, selection and monitoring of oncolytic virus therapy for patients with various types of cancer. In particular, the present invention provides identification of proteins whose expression patterns are strongly predictive of the outcome of oncolytic virus therapy in a patient with cancer. The present invention provides a method for identifying and selecting cancer patients who are likely to be non-responsive to oncolytic virus therapy. These patients can be co-administered an agent that stimulates a cell-mediated immune response in the patient with the oncolytic virus or can be administered a therapy other than oncolytic virus therapy.US20140377221A1 · filed by Board of Regents, The University of Texas System · the most-cited record in this corpus, at 47 citations.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140377221A1 | Biomarkers and combination therapies using oncolytic virus and immunomodulation | 47 |
| 2 | US20200038453A1 | Neural stem cell-mediated cancer treatment | 46 |
| 3 | US20120114612A1 | Oncolytic Viruses And Methods For Treating Neoplastic Disorders | 22 |
| 4 | WO2018145033A1 | Oncolytic virus therapy | 18 |
| 5 | WO2014018113A1 | Oncolytic virus therapy for resistant tumors | 17 |
| 6 | US8679509B2 | Oncolytic viruses and methods for treating neoplastic disorders | 17 |
| 7 | WO2011003194A1 | Oncolytic viruses and methods for treating neoplastic disorders | 16 |
| 8 | US20180148694A1 | Oncolytic virus therapy for resistant tumors | 10 |
| 9 | US9862932B2 | Oncolytic virus therapy for resistant tumors | 10 |
| 10 | US20200000862A1 | Oncolytic virus therapy | 5 |
Ranked by citation count within this 56-record search corpus. Older filings accumulate more citations simply by having been public longer, so treat this as a signal of influence on the field rather than of current technical importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Four read-outs from the trend, the class composition and the citation table.
A stalled field re-accelerating
Activity peaked at 11 records in 2018, collapsed to a single filing by the 2022 midpoint, and has been climbing since — consistent with a first wave of platform patents followed by a lull while clinical data caught up, and a second wave now building.
Virus engineering carries the claim load
C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering) and A61K (medicinal preparations) together cover the large majority of records. Anyone filing a construct or formulation claim here is filing into the densest part of the map, not a gap.
Manufacturing and assay claims are thin
Only 6 of the 56 records touch G01N material analysis and testing, and just 2 touch A01N. Titer measurement, release-assay and potency-testing claims are comparatively under-filed relative to the construct-engineering core.
Influence sits with early biomarker and neural-carrier claims
The most-cited records combine biomarker-based patient selection with cell-mediated delivery platforms, both dating to the early-to-mid 2010s. High citation counts here reflect corpus age as much as current relevance.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to oncolytic virus therapy, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ranked positions, and what is still open
The assignee ranking returned by this dataset covers 12 companies, counted in records — it is the complete ranking, not a top-50 or top-100 cut.
A single academic leader, then a drop
The top-ranked assignee holds 15 records against 5 at fifth place and just 1 at tenth — a steep drop-off after the leader rather than a tightly bunched field, with university and hospital systems making up most of the ranked list.
Recent-year filing has gone quiet across the ranked leaders
Most ranked assignees show zero filings in the latest year, and the one still active is down year-on-year. That is consistent with the broader trend dip, not a sign any one holder has exited the space.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only four co-assignee pairings appear in the dataset, with one pairing between a commercial manufacturer and a university system system standing out from the rest — most records in this space are filed by a single assignee.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| University of Pittsburgh – Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education | 1 | -50% |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 1 | — |
| The Governors of the University of Alberta | 0 | — |
| The General Hospital Corporation | 0 | — |
| DNAtrix, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents, The University of Texas System | 0 | — |
| University of Houston System | 0 | — |
| City of Hope | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The trend and composition data point to a field re-accelerating after a lull, with claim density concentrated in construct engineering rather than manufacturing or testing.
Map the white space claim by claim
Use the under-claimed branches above as search seeds and check freedom-to-operate against the ranked leaders' active families before drafting.
Explore in EurekaTrack the leader's next move
With most ranked assignees quiet in the latest year, a resumed filing from the leader or a new entrant would be the clearest early signal of where the second wave is heading.
Set up monitoring in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this field
The ranking in this dataset is led by a single academic assignee with 15 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 5 records and the tenth-ranked holder at just 1. University systems and hospital research centres make up most of the ranked list, rather than large pharmaceutical companies, which reflects the field's roots in academic virology and translational cancer research. Anyone doing competitive diligence here should expect a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants beneath the leader, not a cluster of similarly sized commercial players.
Filing peaked at 11 records in 2018, dropped sharply to a single record at the 2022 midpoint, and has been climbing back toward the 2026 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any dataset understate true activity, so the apparent recovery is likely stronger than the raw 2026 figure suggests. The overall shape — an early wave, a lull, and renewed filing — is consistent with a technology moving from early platform patents toward clinical validation and a second generation of claims.
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) appears in 85.7% of the 56 records in scope, and A61K (medicinal preparations) in 78.6%, making virus construct engineering and formulation the two densest areas by far. C07K (peptides and proteins) and A61P (therapeutic activity of compounds) each cover under half the records, while G01N testing and A01N biocide-related claims are minority categories. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, which is expected and simply reflects multi-class claiming.
Relative to the dense construct-engineering core, testing and manufacturing claims are thin: only 6 of the 56 records touch G01N material analysis and testing, and just 2 touch A01N. Combination biomarker-selection claims and neural stem cell delivery carriers also appear in the most-cited records but are not heavily re-claimed across the broader set, suggesting room for narrower, well-drafted claims in potency assays, titer-driven manufacturing, and next-generation delivery carriers. These are read-outs from class density and citation patterns, not a guarantee of allowability, so a freedom-to-operate check against the ranked leaders is still essential.
US20140377221A1, assigned to the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System, is the most-cited record in this corpus at 47 citations and covers biomarkers for predicting patient response to oncolytic virus therapy, along with methods for selecting non-responsive patients for combination immunomodulatory treatment. It is a patient-selection and biomarker patent rather than a virus-construct patent, so it primarily constrains combination-therapy and companion-diagnostic approaches tied to response prediction, not the underlying viral engineering. Anyone filing biomarker-guided combination claims in this space should review its scope closely, but construct-engineering or delivery-platform work sits outside its core claims.
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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.