PET Radiotracer Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 17.9% of 10,729 records sit with just five assignees, while the ranked leader alone accounts for 869 records — concentration at the top with a long tail below tenth place.
- Filings fell 25% from 2021 to 2024 (292 to 219), the most recent span that can be read as complete once the ~18-month publication lag is accounted for.
- A61K and C07K dominate claim space at 72.9% and 39.3% of records respectively, while synthesis-module and batch-release logistics remain comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (292 records) with 2024 (219) — 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 10,729 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
PET radiotracer production sits at the intersection of radiochemistry, cyclotron engineering and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The scope here spans cyclotron production, radiochemical purity, synthesis module design, half-life logistics, specific activity control and batch release testing — the operational chain that turns a bombarded target into a dosable radiotracer. The dataset draws on 10,729 published patent families filed or published between 2015 and the mid-2026 cut-off.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend line are undercounts rather than a genuine drop-off; the last year that can be read as complete is 2024.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 10,729-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked in 2018 at 446 and ran at 332 in 2017. The 2021-to-2024 span, the most recent period unaffected by publication lag, shows a 25% decline from 292 to 219 — a real cooling in a maturing production stack rather than an artefact of the cut-off.
IPC subclass composition
A61K (medicinal preparations) touches 72.9% of records and C07K (peptides & proteins) 39.3%, reflecting how much of this corpus is written around the tracer compound itself rather than the production hardware. C07D (heterocyclics, 18.5%) and C07B (general organic synthesis methods, 10.5%) sit further down, and G01N (material analysis & testing, 16.0%) marks where purity and release-testing claims live. Shares add to more than 100% because records carry multiple classes.
Shares are the percentage of the 10,729 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on PET Radiotracer Production with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pet radiotracer production and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA recent filing worth reading closely
Radiolabelling compositions, kits, and methods for fluorine-18 radiolabelling
The filing claims a radiolabelling composition comprising Al18F2+, Al3+ and a buffer, with the Al18F2+ held to a radiochemical purity of at least 90.0%, and the Al3+ amount specified as between 0.001 and 10 µmol per GBq of fluorine-18 activity at end of bombardment.Publication number, applicant and filing date are shown in the table; the abstract text above is quoted from the filing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4666828A | Test for Huntington's disease | 3,049 |
| 2 | US5766886A | Modified antibody variable domains | 2,893 |
| 3 | US4518584A | Human recombinant interleukin-2 muteins | 1,142 |
| 4 | US4588585A | Human recombinant cysteine depleted interferon- beta muteins | 993 |
| 5 | US5093246A | RNA ribozyme polymerases, dephosphorylases, restriction endoribo-nucleases and methods | 922 |
| 6 | US4959314A | Cysteine-depleted muteins of biologically active proteins | 760 |
| 7 | US20050100543A1 | Multivalent carriers of bi-specific antibodies | 727 |
| 8 | US6309824B1 | Methods for analyzing a target nucleic acid using immobilized heterogeneous mixtures of oligonucleotide probes | 655 |
| 9 | WO1997033899A1 | Apoptosis inducing molecule i | 653 |
| 10 | US4956288A | Method for producing cells containing stably integrated foreign DNA at a high copy number, the cells produced… | 596 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate them — read them as a signal of influence within this searched corpus, not as a ranking of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting or licensing in this space.
The top of the field is compact, the rest is a long tail
The ranked leader holds 869 records on its own; by fifth place the count is down to 181 and by tenth to 129. Combined, the top 10 hold 24.6% of all records in scope — a meaningful share, but it leaves three-quarters of the corpus spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Activity has cooled from its post-2018 peak
Filings peaked at 446 in 2018 and have not returned to that level since. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent stretch not distorted by publication lag, shows a real 25% decline, consistent with several of the ranked leaders posting negative year-on-year movement in the most recent tracked year.
Claims cluster on the compound, not the process
Medicinal-preparation claims (A61K) and peptide/protein claims (C07K) dominate the corpus, while material analysis and testing (G01N, 16.0%) and general organic synthesis methods (C07B, 10.5%) are comparatively thin. That gap is where production-process and quality-control claims have room to move.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pet radiotracer production, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked leaders combine large diversified healthcare and pharma filers with university and specialist radiopharma applicants; momentum among several of the largest is currently negative rather than accelerating.
A single filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 869 records, more than four times the fifth-placed filer's 181. That gap suggests a deep, defensible portfolio around core tracer chemistry and imaging hardware rather than a crowded multi-way race at the very top.
A sharp drop-off after the top few
By tenth place the count has fallen to 129, less than a sixth of the leader's total. Below that line sit university groups, specialist radiopharma developers and diversified life-science firms filing in smaller, more targeted batches.
Recent-year activity is slowing across the board
Several of the assignees with strong historical portfolios show sharply negative year-on-year filing counts in the most recent tracked year, with some down to zero. This is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 decline rather than an isolated retreat by one player.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Accelerator Applications SA | 2 | -78% |
| Clarity Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd | 2 | -80% |
| Johns Hopkins University | 1 | -80% |
| GE Healthcare Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Human Genome Sciences Inc | 0 | — |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc | 0 | — |
| DSM IP Assets BV | 0 | — |
| Agri Victoria Services Pty Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a field with settled compound-side claims and open process-side ground.
Map the white space before drafting
Synthesis-module design, batch-release testing and half-life logistics all sit well below the 72.9% claim density seen in A61K. A freedom-to-operate check focused on these process branches, rather than the compound classes, is likely to surface fewer blocking prior filings.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the leader's renewal and continuation pattern
With the top filer holding 869 records against a fifth-place count of 181, its portfolio shape — and which parts of it lapse or get continued — will tell you more about future freedom to operate than any single new filing.
Track assignee activity in EurekaRe-read momentum after 2026 data lands
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent slowdown through 2024-2026 should be revisited once later-year filings finish publishing, rather than treated as a settled trend today.
Set up trend alerts in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 869 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed filer at 181 and the tenth-placed filer at 129. The top 5 assignees together hold 17.9% of all 10,729 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 24.6%. Below that, the field spreads into a long tail of universities, specialist radiopharma developers and diversified life-science companies each holding smaller counts.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 446 records and has declined since; the most recent complete comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows a 25% drop from 292 to 219. Figures from 2025 onward are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the true 2025-2026 picture will only firm up over time. Treat the current trend as a cooling from a 2018 peak rather than a sudden collapse.
The corpus skews heavily toward the tracer compound itself: A61K (medicinal preparations) appears in 72.9% of the 10,729 records and C07K (peptides & proteins) in 39.3%. Process-oriented classes such as G01N (material analysis & testing, 16.0%) and C07B (general organic synthesis methods, 10.5%) are present but thinner, which is where production-engineering claims have more room. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add to more than 100% and should not be summed.
Synthesis-module automation, batch-release analytics, half-life logistics scheduling and specific-activity control methods all sit below the density seen in compound-side classes like A61K and C07K. These are process and quality-control branches rather than new tracer chemistries, and they tend to draw fewer blocking prior filings. A freedom-to-operate search focused specifically on these branches, rather than the compound classes, is the more efficient use of review time.
Citation counts in this corpus favour older filings because they have had more time to accumulate citations, not because they are more technically central today. The most-cited records in this dataset date back decades and reflect foundational biology and antibody work rather than current production methods. Use citation rank as a signal of historical influence within the searched corpus, and pair it with recency and IPC composition when assessing current relevance.
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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.