Ultrasound Contrast Microbubbles Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- 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 fell 67% from 108 in 2021 to 36 in 2024, the last year the trend can be read as complete.
- A61K dominates appearing in 77.2% of records, while device-side classes like A61M sit under 6%, pointing to where claim space is still open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (108 records) with 2024 (36) — 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 3,284 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the microbubble patent record actually shows
Ultrasound contrast microbubbles sit at the intersection of formulation chemistry and imaging hardware: shell material, gas core selection, and the acoustic response of the bubble under insonation are the recurring technical anchors across the corpus. The dataset covers 3,284 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search built around agent composition terms alongside imaging and destruction-threshold behaviour.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 at 128 records and has since declined; the most recent years are necessarily incomplete because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. Reading the trend past 2024 as a slowdown would be premature — the last year that can be treated as a complete data point is 2024, where filings sat at 36 against 108 in 2021.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,284-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A sharp pull-back from the 2017 peak
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.
Formulation classes dominate; devices remain thin
A61K (medicinal preparations) appears in 77.2% of the 3,284 records, far ahead of C07K (peptides & proteins) at 25.9% and A61B (diagnosis & surgery) at 22.5%. Device-adjacent classes — A61M (body-fluid devices) at 5.7% and A61N (electrotherapy & radiation) at 6.5% — are comparatively thin, which is consistent with most of the claim activity sitting in agent composition rather than delivery or imaging hardware.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,284 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ultrasound Contrast Microbubbles with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ultrasound contrast microbubbles and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this corpus
Ultrasonic blood perfusion imaging method and apparatus for single vessel
The filing describes activating an ultrasound contrast agent within a labelled vessel contour, comparing pre- and post-activation ultrasound images, and deriving a blood flow perfusion distribution map for a single vessel from the resulting activation map.US20230044120A1 — Nanjing Leapsonics Technology Co., Ltd., published 2023-02-09
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7534866B2 | Methods and compositions for generating bioactive assemblies of increased complexity and uses | 544 |
| 2 | US7527787B2 | Multivalent immunoglobulin-based bioactive assemblies | 536 |
| 3 | US6261537B1 | Diagnostic/therapeutic agents having microbubbles coupled to one or more vectors | 413 |
| 4 | US5993805A | Spray-dried microparticles and their use as therapeutic vehicles | 329 |
| 5 | US5147631A | Porous inorganic ultrasound contrast agents | 327 |
| 6 | US7550143B2 | Methods for generating stably linked complexes composed of homodimers, homotetramers or dimers of dimers and … | 315 |
| 7 | US5846517A | Methods for diagnostic imaging using a renal contrast agent and a vasodilator | 310 |
| 8 | US6521211B1 | Methods of imaging and treatment with targeted compositions | 290 |
| 9 | US20070140966A1 | Multivalent immunoglobulin-based bioactive assemblies | 278 |
| 10 | WO2007075270A2 | Multivalent immunoglobulin-based bioactive assemblies | 272 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting a new application in this space.
The top of the field is dense, not the whole field
Five assignees hold 39.3% of all 3,284 records in scope, and the top ten hold 51.9%. That leaves close to half the corpus spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate work tends to find room.
Volume has cooled from its 2017 peak
Filings dropped from 108 in 2021 to 36 in 2024, a 67% fall over that span, after peaking at 128 in 2017. The leading assignees in this dataset show no filings in the latest year, which is expected given publication lag rather than necessarily a sign of withdrawal.
Formulation claims crowd the field
A61K appears in 77.2% of the 3,284 records, well ahead of any other subclass, while A61M (delivery devices) sits at 5.7%. New composition claims are competing in dense prior art; device and delivery-side claims face a thinner field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ultrasound contrast microbubbles, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Bracco International B.V. | Dyax Corp. | 59 |
| Bracco Suisse SA | Dyax Corp. | 40 |
| Bracco International B.V. | NANJAPPAN PALANIAPPA | 19 |
| Immunomedics, Inc. | GOLDENBERG DAVID M | 17 |
| Immunomedics, Inc. | IBC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 16 |
| Bracco Suisse SA | Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited | 14 |
| Bracco International B.V. | SWENSON ROLF E | 14 |
| Bracco International B.V. | PILLAI RADHAKRISHNA | 13 |
The dataset records ten co-assignee pairs, with the strongest pairing appearing 59 times — a signal of a small number of longstanding joint-filing relationships rather than broad industry-wide co-development.
Who holds the claim space
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies returned by the data endpoint, counted in patent families — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranked set the dataset provides.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 385 records, more than triple the fifth-placed assignee's 97. That gap is the clearest sign of an entrenched formulation and delivery portfolio built up over years of continuation filing.
The drop-off past the leader is gradual, then flattens
Fifth place holds 97 records and tenth place holds 68 — a much shallower gap than between first and fifth. Beyond the top ten, volume per assignee falls further, consistent with a long tail of narrower, more defensible filings.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the leaders
Every one of the leading assignees tracked shows zero filings in the latest year, including one at -100% year-on-year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as an incomplete data window rather than a confirmed exit from the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Immunomedics, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Bracco Suisse SA | 0 | -100% |
| IBC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| GE Healthcare | 0 | — |
| Bristol Myers Squibb Pharma Co. | 0 | — |
| BRACCO RES USA | 0 | — |
| Bracco International B.V. | 0 | — |
| Dyax Corp. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The published record gives a view through roughly 2024 with confidence; the frontier questions sit past that line.
Map freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 385 records against a fifth-place figure of 97, any new formulation claim needs specific clearance against that leader's continuation filings before drafting proceeds.
Run a claim clearance searchTest draft claims against the under-claimed branches
Reconstitution stability, destruction-threshold triggered release and gas-core tuning show thinner coverage than core A61K composition claims, making them candidates for narrower, more defensible filings.
Explore white space with EurekaCommon questions on microbubble contrast agent patents
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.
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.
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.
Relative to the dense A61K composition coverage, branches like reconstitution kit stability, destruction-threshold-triggered drug release, and gas-core selection for acoustic tuning show thinner representation in this corpus. These are not guaranteed to be open — thin representation in an IPC search is a starting signal, not a clearance — but they are reasonable places to prioritise novelty searching before drafting a new composition or delivery claim.
The top five assignees hold 39.3% of all 3,284 records in scope, and the top ten hold 51.9%, meaning roughly half the field is held by ten organisations and the other half is spread across a long tail of the remaining ranked companies plus unranked filers. This pattern — a steep drop from the leader followed by a shallower gradient further down the ranking — is typical of a maturing but not fully consolidated pharmaceutical-device niche.
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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.