Ultrasound Contrast Microbubbles Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
Ultrasound Contrast Microbubble Patents: Concentration at the Top, a Long Tail Below
39.3% of all filings sit with just five assignees out of the 3,284 records in scope — concentration builds fast past the leader. Filings ran at 128 in 2017 and had fallen to 36 by 2024, a 67% decline from the 2021 level of 108. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as confirming a continued fall.
- 1IMMUNOMEDICS INC385
- 2BRACCO SUISSE SA379
- 3IBC PHARMACEUTICALS INC234
- 4GE HEALTHCARE AS197
- 5LANTHEUS MEDICAL IMAGING INC97
See the full ultrasound contrast microbubbles analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on microbubble contrast agent patents
Who holds the most patents on ultrasound contrast microbubbles?
The dataset’s ranked leader holds 385 records, more than triple the fifth-placed assignee’s 97, and the top five assignees together account for 39.3% of all 3,284 records in scope. This concentration is built largely on formulation and reconstitution claims rather than imaging hardware. A freedom-to-operate review in this space should start with that leader’s portfolio before broader searching, since its filing volume dwarfs everyone else in the ranking.
Is the microbubble contrast agent patent field still growing?
Filings peaked at 128 in 2017 and had fallen to 36 by 2024, a 67% decline from the 108 filed in 2021. Because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as proof the field is shrinking further. Treat 2024 as the last reliable year and revisit the trend once later years finish publishing.
What technology areas dominate ultrasound contrast agent patents?
A61K, covering medicinal preparations, appears in 77.2% of the 3,284 records in scope, making formulation and composition claims the densest part of the field by a wide margin. C07K (peptides and proteins) and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) follow at 25.9% and 22.5% respectively. Device-side classes such as A61M sit well below 10%, suggesting device and delivery-mechanism claims face less crowded prior art than agent composition claims.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrasound Contrast Microbubbles covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.