Protein A Chromatography Resins Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- 62.1% of all 174 records in scope sit with just five assignees, and 92.5% sit with ten — a field with almost no long tail left to file into.
- Filing peaked in 2024 at 16 records after a flat-to-declining stretch through the early 2020s (2022 sat at just 3), not a rising curve.
- 96.0% of records carry a C07K classification but cleaning-related classes (B08B, C11D) each cover under 4% of records — CIP and detergent-compatible ligand chemistry is comparatively unclaimed.
What this landscape covers
Protein A chromatography resins are the affinity capture step in almost every monoclonal antibody purification process, and the patent activity mapped here spans 174 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off. The search combines Protein A resin and affinity chromatography terminology with process-specific language — dynamic binding capacity, ligand leaching, alkaline CIP stability, resin lifetime, elution pH — against IPC classes covering sorbents, peptide purification and separation processes.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset understate actual filing activity; treat the most recent two years as a floor, not a ceiling. Family-level counting is used throughout so that continuations and multi-jurisdiction refiling of the same invention are not double-counted.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 174 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A flat-to-declining trend with one late spike
Filings ran at just 2 in 2017, sat at a midpoint of 3 in 2022, then rose to a peak of 16 in 2024 before the partial, still-incomplete 2026 count. That shape argues against reading this as a steadily growing field; it looks more like a mature area with an isolated burst of renewed activity.
Peptide and protein claims dominate; cleaning chemistry is thin
C07K (peptides and proteins) appears in 96.0% of the 174 records, confirming that almost every filing frames itself around protein purification chemistry. B01D (separation processes) and B01J (sorbent/catalytic processes) cover 19.0% and 11.5% respectively, while cleaning-specific classes B08B and C11D sit at 3.4% and 1.7% — a strong signal that alkaline-stability and CIP-compatible ligand claims are a comparatively open corner of the same search space.
Shares are the percentage of the 174 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Protein A Chromatography Resins with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about protein a chromatography resins and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
NZ624806A — Isolation and purification of antibodies using protein A affinity chromatography
Discloses a process for purifying adalimumab from a CHO fermentation harvest: binding the antibody to a Protein A resin, eluting at pH 3.2-4, then incubating the eluate at pH 3-4 for 0.5 to 2 hours.Filed by AbbVie, dated 2015-12-24.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6870034B2 | Protein purification | 263 |
| 2 | US20030153735A1 | Protein purification | 144 |
| 3 | US20160024147A1 | Purification Platform for Bispecific Antibodies | 121 |
| 4 | US20140154270A1 | Purification of non-human antibodies using kosmotropic salt enhanced protein a affinity chromatography | 99 |
| 5 | WO2013177118A2 | Novel purification of non-human antibodies using protein a affinity chromatography | 74 |
| 6 | WO2003066662A2 | Protein purification | 70 |
| 7 | US20130336957A1 | Novel purification of human, humanized, or chimeric antibodies using protein a affinity chromatography | 68 |
| 8 | US20140010820A1 | Novel purification of non-human antibodies using protein a affinity chromatography | 63 |
| 9 | WO2013177115A2 | Novel purification of human, humanized, or chimeric antibodies using protein a affinity chromatography | 57 |
| 10 | WO2014186350A1 | Purification of recombinantly produced polypeptides | 47 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
Five assignees hold most of the claim space
With 62.1% of all 174 records in scope held by five assignees and 92.5% held by ten, new entrants are filing into a field where the core purification chemistry is already heavily claimed by a small group. The leader alone accounts for 31 records.
Activity is not on a steady upward path
Filings fell to a midpoint of 3 in 2022 before the 2024 peak of 16, and several of the largest historical assignees show zero filings in the most recent year tracked. That pattern reads as episodic renewal rather than sustained growth.
Cleaning and CIP chemistry is thinly claimed
Almost every record touches C07K peptide chemistry, but cleaning-specific classifications B08B and C11D cover only 3.4% and 1.7% of the 174 records respectively. Alkaline CIP stability is a named search term in this dataset yet barely shows up as a distinct classification, suggesting it is usually claimed as a resin property rather than a cleaning-composition invention in its own right.
Europe and the US lead filing venues
Europe (32) and the United States (29) are the top receiving offices, with WIPO PCT filings (21) sitting behind them and Israel (16), Australia (13) and Canada (13) forming a second tier. That spread points to a field prosecuted primarily across the major biologics markets rather than concentrated in a single jurisdiction.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to protein a chromatography resins, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
The ranked leaders sit close together at the top, and several of the largest historical filers have gone quiet in the most recent tracked year.
One assignee leads by a clear margin
The top-ranked company holds 31 of the 174 records in scope, well ahead of the field, with the fifth-ranked assignee at 13 and the tenth-ranked at 9 — a steep drop-off rather than an even distribution.
Several historical leaders show no recent filings
Multiple assignees that built large historical portfolios in this space, including some ranked in the top five, recorded zero filings in the most recent tracked year. That is consistent with a mature technology base rather than active new claim-building by the incumbents.
Co-filing is limited but concentrated
Ten co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest relationship linking two related MedImmune entities on 13 shared records and a second pairing between Sanofi and Innate Pharma on 9 records. Most assignees, however, file independently.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc | 0 | — |
| Genentech Inc | 0 | — |
| EMD Millipore Corp | 0 | — |
| Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| MedImmune LLC | 0 | — |
| MedImmune Ltd | 0 | — |
| Sanofi SA | 0 | -100% |
| Innate Pharma SA | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new claim drafting.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top 10
With 92.5% of the 174 records held by ten assignees, any new filing or product launch should be checked specifically against that group's claims before broader searching.
Run an FTO check in EurekaExplore the under-claimed cleaning branches
B08B and C11D classifications cover a small share of records despite CIP and ligand-leaching being explicit search terms, suggesting room for narrowly drafted claims in cleaning-compatible resin chemistry.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch for renewed filing after the 2024 peak
The jump to 16 filings in 2024 after a flat 2022 midpoint could mark the start of a new filing wave; monitoring the next 12-18 months of publications will show whether it holds.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on Protein A resin patents
The assignee ranking for this dataset covers 45 companies across 174 records, and it is heavily concentrated: the top five assignees together hold 62.1% of all records, and the top ten hold 92.5%. The single leading assignee accounts for 31 records on its own, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 13. This means a small number of large biologics and separation-science companies control most of the claim space, rather than the field being spread across many small filers.
Not steadily. Filings started at 2 in 2017, sat at a midpoint of only 3 in 2022, and then rose to a peak of 16 in 2024 before the partial, incomplete 2026 count. That trajectory looks like a flat or declining base with one isolated spike rather than continuous growth, and several of the largest historical assignees recorded zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any such dataset will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
IPC composition shows that while 96.0% of the 174 records carry a C07K peptide/protein classification, cleaning-specific classes are thin: B08B (general cleaning) covers only 3.4% of records and C11D (detergent compositions) covers 1.7%. Given that alkaline CIP stability and ligand leaching are explicit search terms in this dataset, that gap suggests cleaning-compatible resin chemistry is usually claimed as a property of the resin rather than as a standalone cleaning-composition invention. That leaves room for more narrowly drafted claims specifically around CIP-stable ligand attachment or detergent-tolerant matrix chemistry.
NZ624806A claims a specific process for purifying adalimumab from a CHO cell fermentation harvest, binding it to a Protein A resin, eluting at a pH of 3.2 to 4, and then holding the eluate at pH 3 to 4 for 0.5 to 2 hours, filed by AbbVie and dated 2015-12-24. It blocks that particular combination of elution pH range and post-elution incubation window for the named antibody purification context, not Protein A chromatography in general. Anyone designing a similar low-pH elution and hold step for a different antibody or a different pH window would need to check how closely their process parameters overlap with this claimed range.
The most-cited records in this dataset include US6870034B2 and US20030153735A1, both titled 'Protein purification' and cited 263 and 144 times respectively, followed by more recent filings on bispecific antibody purification and kosmotropic-salt-enhanced Protein A chromatography. High citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so they are a better signal of historical influence on the field than of which claims are commercially active today. A freedom-to-operate review should still check current-status and expiry dates rather than relying on citation rank 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.