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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/postbiotics-and-microbial-metabolites-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Microbiome TherapeuticsPostbiotics and Microbial Metabolite Patents: Who Files, What They Claim
- 73.5% concentration. The top 5 of 18 ranked assignees hold 36 of all 49 records in scope — a field with a narrow leading group and a long tail below it.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak. Volume ran 19 in 2019, then fell from 16 in 2021 to 4 in 2024 (-75%), the last year the trend can be read as complete before publication lag sets in.
- Claims split across two domains. A61K medicinal preparations cover 63.3% of records, but C05F/C05G fertiliser classes and A01H plant-breeding classes together mark a sizeable agricultural-use branch inside the same search.
49
Published Records
73%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-75%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
WO
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 49 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this patent set covers
This landscape covers records where claims combine a microbial metabolite, postbiotic preparation, or butyrate-producing strain with a specific technical anchor — mechanism attribution, metabolite quantification, formulation stability, dose-response relationship, host receptor interaction, or manufacturing route. That combination narrows the set to 49 published records spanning 2015 through the July 2026 cut-off, rather than the far larger universe of general probiotic or microbiome filings.
The scope draws in two distinct application tracks under one search string: human and animal therapeutic use, and agricultural or fertiliser-related microbial products. Readers should treat the two as separate competitive arenas that happen to share metabolite-characterisation technology, not a single homogeneous market.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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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The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 49 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims sit in.
A 2019 peak, then a documented decline
Filing rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 19 in 2019, then eased. The clearest complete comparison is 2021 (16) to 2024 (4), a -75% move. 2025 and 2026 figures will keep filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, so they should not yet be read as a continued fall.
Medicinal preparations dominate, but agricultural classes are substantial
A61K appears on 63.3% of the 49 records and A61P on 44.9%, confirming a therapeutic core. C12N (28.6%) covers the microorganism engineering layer beneath both tracks. C05F and C05G, at 24.5% and 20.4% respectively, plus A01H at 18.4%, show that a real share of this filing activity is agricultural microbial-product formulation rather than human therapeutics — classes can overlap, so these figures sum past 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 49 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 Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records in this set
Representative Filing
Methods of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (WO2020058979A2)
YEDA RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CO. LTD.
A method of treating ALS in a subject in need thereof is disclosed. The method comprises administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount at least two metabolites.Filed by Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., published 2020-03-26. Notable for anchoring a therapeutic metabolite-combination claim to a defined neurodegenerative indication rather than a broad microbiome-health claim.
Highest-citation records across the 49-record set
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2020118111A1 | Polymer compositions with improved stability for nitrogen fixing microbial products | 41 |
| 2 | US20220106238A1 | Polymer compositions with improved stability for nitrogen fixing microbial products | 24 |
| 3 | WO2020058979A2 | Methods of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | 7 |
| 4 | US20210353611A1 | Methods of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | 6 |
| 5 | WO2022103971A1 | Compositions and methods for predicting risk of moderate to severe covid-19 disease | 5 |
| 6 | WO2025191570A1 | Sweet proteins and food products comprising the same | 2 |
| 7 | US20240011991A1 | Compositions and methods for predicting risk of moderate to severe covid-19 disease | 2 |
| 8 | WO2020058979A9 | Methods of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | 2 |
| 9 | WO2025072960A2 | Methods to modulate in VIVO levels of hydrogen sulfide by engineered organisms | 1 |
| 10 | US20240180842A1 | Colon targeted drug delivery | 1 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply by having had more time to accumulate references; read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current technical 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 Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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 a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
Concentration
73.5%
of 49 records held by top 5 of 18 ranked assignees
A narrow leading group, not a crowded field
With 18 companies in the entire ranked list and the leader alone on 14 records, this is a field where a handful of assignees have built dense positions while most others hold a single filing. New entrants are more likely to find open ground than to face a large defensive thicket.
Based on the full 18-assignee ranking
Momentum
16 → 4
records, 2021 to 2024 (-75%)
Volume has pulled back from its peak
The 19-record peak in 2019 has not been repeated; the last complete year-over-year comparison shows a steep drop. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, 2025-2026 counts are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued decline.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete
Technology split
24.5% + 20.4%
of records in C05F and C05G fertiliser classes
An agricultural branch runs alongside the therapeutic one
Nearly a quarter of records sit in organic/waste-derived fertiliser classes and a fifth in fertiliser mixtures, alongside A01H plant-breeding classes at 18.4%. Firms filing purely on the therapeutic side should track this agricultural cluster separately, since it uses related metabolite and strain characterisation methods.
IPC subclass shares of all 49 records
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Co-filing is rare
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Northeastern University (US) | KOPPES RYAN A | 2 |
| University of Chicago | The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 2 |
| Shanghai Miracogen Inc. | Lepu Biopharma Co., Ltd. | 1 |
Only 3 co-assignee pairs appear across the set, and the strongest pairs each involve just one or two university-industry or academic partnerships — most filings here are single-assignee.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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
Players
Who holds the ground, and where it opens up
The ranking captures 18 companies across 49 records; five of them account for nearly three-quarters of all activity.
Leader
14 records
records held by the top-ranked assignee
One assignee sets the pace
The leading assignee's 14 records make it the only entity with a genuinely dense position in this dataset; the next four ranked assignees combine with it to reach 36 of 49 records total.
Top 5 = 73.5% of 49 records
Mid-tier
3 records
held by the fifth-ranked assignee
A sharp drop after the leader
Filing counts fall away quickly past the top position — fifth place holds just 3 records and tenth place only 2 — indicating most participants entered with a small, defensive filing rather than a sustained programme.
Fifth place: 3 records; tenth place: 2 records
Long tail
95.9%
of 49 records held by top 10 of 18 assignees
Almost the whole field sits in ten hands
The top 10 assignees account for 47 of 49 records, leaving only a handful of records spread across the remaining eight ranked assignees. Recent-year momentum data shows several previously active assignees, including the leader, recording zero filings in the latest year — consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback.
Latest-year momentum: several leading assignees at 0
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Pivot Bio Inc. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Miracogen Inc. | 0 | — |
| Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Axial Therapeutics Inc. | 0 | — |
| Northeastern University (US) | 0 | — |
| ADVANCED BIOLOGICAL MARKETING INC | 0 | — |
| University of Chicago | 0 | — |
| The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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 dataset points to a few concrete next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or new filing strategy.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top 5
With 73.5% of records held by five assignees, any new therapeutic or agricultural metabolite filing should be checked against their specific claim scope before drafting, not just against the field in general.
Run a freedom-to-operate checkExplore the under-claimed branches
Formulation stability, dose-response quantification and host receptor interaction carry fewer records than the core medicinal-preparation cluster and may offer more room for a defensible first claim.
Map white space in EurekaWatch the 2025-2026 publication window
Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, records for 2025 and 2026 are still arriving. Re-checking the trend in six to twelve months will show whether the 2021-2024 pullback continued or reversed.
Track filing trends over timeSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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 postbiotics and microbial metabolite patents
It is fairly concentrated at the top. Across 18 ranked assignees and 49 total records, the top 5 hold 36 records, which is 73.5% of everything in scope, and the top 10 hold 47 records, or 95.9%. That leaves only a small number of records spread across the remaining eight ranked assignees, so a newcomer is far more likely to compete with one of a handful of dense filers than with a crowded general field.
Filing peaked at 19 records in 2019 and then declined; the clearest complete comparison runs from 16 records in 2021 to 4 in 2024, a drop of 75%. However, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the lower counts showing for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete rather than proof of a continued fall. The honest read is a documented pullback through 2024, with the more recent trajectory still unresolved.
The dominant classes are A61K (medicinal preparations), appearing on 63.3% of the 49 records, and A61P (therapeutic activity of compounds) on 44.9%, reflecting a therapeutic core. C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) sits underneath both application tracks at 28.6%. A second, agricultural cluster also shows up clearly: C05F and C05G fertiliser-related classes cover 24.5% and 20.4% of records respectively, and A01H plant-breeding classes cover 18.4%, meaning a real share of this filing activity is agricultural rather than human-health focused.
WO2020058979A2, filed by Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. and published 2020-03-26, discloses a method of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by administering a therapeutically effective amount of at least two metabolites to a subject. It is one of the more heavily cited records in this dataset, alongside its related US counterpart. Anyone drafting a metabolite-combination therapy claim for a neurodegenerative indication should review its specific metabolite combinations and dosing language before finalising claim scope.
Based on the IPC composition, the smaller classes relative to the A61K/A61P core, such as C07K peptides and proteins at 10.2% and A01N biocides at 10.2%, along with technical anchors like dose-response quantification, formulation stability testing, and host receptor interaction assays, carry fewer records than the dominant medicinal-preparation cluster. These are not proven-empty spaces, but they are comparatively under-claimed relative to the therapeutic core and worth a focused prior-art check before drafting a first claim there.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Postbiotics and Microbial Metabolites 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.