Vacuum Freeze Drying Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 95 families and has declined since, with the 2022 midpoint of 60 already below that peak — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- A61K medicinal preparations dominates with 1,314 of 1,943 records touching drug formulation, dwarfing F26B drying equipment (749) and leaving food-side A23L filings comparatively thin at 96.
- The most recent-year momentum is flat across major assignees several long-standing filers, including Amgen and Baxter International, show zero filings in the latest tracked year — a signal worth checking against the 18-month publication lag before reading too much into it.
What the patent record shows about vacuum freeze drying
Vacuum freeze drying patenting sits at the intersection of process engineering and formulation science. The dataset spans 1,943 patent families filed between 2017 and mid-2026, drawn from documents whose claims explicitly address primary drying, shelf temperature control, cake structure, cycle time or residual moisture — the operating parameters that separate a workable lyophilization cycle from a failed one. The IPC composition confirms where the claim pressure sits: A61K (medicinal preparations) accounts for the largest single share at 1,314 records, more than four times the count in F26B (drying) equipment and process claims, with therapeutic-activity and biologic-specific subclasses (A61P, C12N, C07K) filling out the pharmaceutical side of the field.
Filing rose from 77 families in 2017 to a peak of 95 in 2021, then eased back toward the 2022 midpoint of 60 — a pattern consistent with a technology area where core process claims are largely staked out and new filings increasingly target narrower formulation or cycle-parameter refinements. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the largest single venue (442), ahead of the EPO (320) and PCT filings (226), with meaningful volume also routed through Australia, Canada and India, indicating that applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection on the pharmaceutical-grade side of the technology rather than filing narrowly in one home market.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC distribution for records matching primary drying, shelf temperature, cake structure, cycle time and residual moisture claim language, filtered to F26B5, A23L3 and A61K9.
A peak-then-plateau filing curve
Filings climbed from 77 in 2017 to a peak of 95 in 2021, then declined toward 60 at the 2022 midpoint and down to single digits by 2026 — though the final one to two years are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Pharmaceutical formulation dominates over drying equipment
A61K's 1,314 records outweigh F26B's 749 by a wide margin, meaning most active claim territory concerns what is freeze-dried and how the formulation survives the process, rather than the dryer hardware itself; A23L (foods) and A01N (agrochemicals) each sit under 100, marking them as comparatively open application domains.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,943 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Vacuum Freeze Drying Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about vacuum freeze drying technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited foundational patents
Target residual moisture content for lyophilized drug product
Lyophilization methods for preparing protein formulations for long-term storage at room temperature or improved stability at refrigeration storage are provided. Specifically, the application provides methods to obtain a target percentage of residual moisture of a lyophilized product, such as 3-5% residual moisture. Secondary drying can be conducted under controlling rate of desorption at a temperature similar to the shelf temperature of primary drying, or the process can proceed without a distinguished secondary drying step.Filed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, published 2021-08-05.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5302401A | Method to reduce particle size growth during lyophilization | 631 |
| 2 | US6933326B1 | Particulate acellular tissue matrix | 356 |
| 3 | US20070116729A1 | Lyophilization process and products obtained thereby | 317 |
| 4 | US6284282B1 | Method of spray freeze drying proteins for pharmaceutical administration | 251 |
| 5 | US5298261A | Rapidly distintegrating tablet | 214 |
| 6 | US7358284B2 | Particulate acellular tissue matrix | 168 |
| 7 | US20040042972A1 | Spray freeze dry of compositions for intranasal administration | 153 |
| 8 | WO2016165831A1 | Lyophilization of RNA | 148 |
| 9 | US6199297B1 | Lyophilization apparatus and methods | 143 |
| 10 | WO2001041800A2 | Compositions and methods for stabilizing biological molecules upon lyophilization | 136 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat this table as a map of foundational influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once family counts, IPC composition and citation data are read together.
The core process claims are largely staked out
A rise to a 2021 peak followed by a steady pullback through the 2022 midpoint points to a field where the foundational primary-drying and cycle-parameter claims were filed early, and later entrants are narrowing into formulation-specific or product-specific variants rather than broad process claims.
Formulation science outweighs equipment claims
Nearly twice as many records sit in medicinal-preparation claims as in drying-process or equipment claims, meaning that a freeze-dryer hardware filing faces a smaller but still substantial prior-art base, while a drug-formulation filing enters far more contested territory.
Particle-size and process-control patents anchor the field
The most-cited records address particle size control during lyophilization, acellular tissue matrices, and spray freeze drying of proteins — early, broad filings that later formulation-specific patents build around rather than directly contest.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to vacuum freeze drying technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has stalled
Assignee activity in this dataset is concentrated among a small number of pharmaceutical and life-sciences filers, several of which show no filings in the most recent tracked year — a pattern that should be checked against publication lag before being read as retreat from the field.
Baxter International's filings are frequently joint
The strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset links Baxter International with a Baxter healthcare affiliate at 27 shared families, with a smaller but notable pairing to the University of Connecticut at 10 — evidence of a filer that routes IP through both corporate and academic-collaboration channels.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet for established filers
Amgen, IMA Life North America, Baxter International and Wyeth all show zero filings in the latest tracked year, with Amgen and IMA Life North America both down 100% year-on-year — consistent with the broader post-2021 decline in the trend data.
Equipment makers pair with academic research arms
IMA Life North America's co-filing with Purdue Research Foundation points to equipment manufacturers securing IP through sponsored university research on process control, a route smaller filers without in-house pharma R&D can also pursue.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Millrock Technology | 0 | — |
| Amgen Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| IMA Life North America Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Windtree Therapeutics | 0 | — |
| Baxter International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Wyeth | 0 | — |
| Advaxis, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Abraxis BioScience, LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or competitive tracking.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top-cited patents
Before filing a formulation or cycle-control claim, check it against the particle-size, tissue-matrix and spray-freeze-drying patents that anchor this corpus' citation graph.
Explore prior art in EurekaModel the under-claimed branches as first-filing opportunities
Food-grade cycle optimization and container systems for lyophilized product carry a fraction of the record count seen in pharmaceutical formulation, and may offer cleaner claim space.
Map white space in EurekaTrack quiet assignees for renewed activity
Several major filers show no activity in the latest tracked year; set an alert to catch the moment publication lag clears and any resumed filing becomes visible.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaCommon questions about vacuum freeze drying patents
The dataset shows 1,314 records in A61K (medicinal preparations) against 749 in F26B (drying), because the hardest technical problems in vacuum freeze drying today concern how a specific biologic or drug formulation survives the process, not the mechanical design of the freeze dryer itself. Getting a stable cake structure and acceptable residual moisture for a particular protein or vaccine formulation requires formulation-specific claims around excipients, shelf temperature profiles and cycle parameters. Equipment claims, by contrast, tend to be broader and were more heavily filed in earlier years, leaving less unclaimed ground for new hardware-only applications.
Yes, based on this dataset: filings rose from 77 in 2017 to a peak of 95 in 2021, then declined to 60 by the 2022 midpoint and continued falling into single digits by 2026. This pattern is typical of a technology area where the foundational process claims were filed early and the field has moved into narrower, formulation-specific refinements. That said, the most recent one to two years in any filing trend are understated because patent publication lags the actual filing date by roughly 18 months, so the true 2025-2026 picture will only become clear later.
The most-cited record in this corpus is US5302401A, a method to reduce particle size growth during lyophilization, cited 631 times, followed by patents covering particulate acellular tissue matrices and spray freeze drying of proteins for pharmaceutical administration. These citation counts reflect age and foundational influence within the searched corpus rather than current market share, since older patents accumulate citations simply by being available longer. Among active assignees, Baxter International shows the strongest co-filing pattern in the dataset, sharing 27 families with an affiliated Baxter entity.
Based on IPC composition, the food-processing branch (A23L, 96 records) and the agrochemical/biocide branch (A01N, 93 records) carry a small fraction of the filing density seen in pharmaceutical formulation claims (A61K, 1,314 records). Container systems for lyophilized products (A61J, 83 records) also sit well below the pharmaceutical core. These lower counts do not guarantee an easy claim, but they indicate branches where the prior art a new filing must clear is comparatively thin relative to the crowded biologic-formulation space.
A high citation count, such as the 631 citations on US5302401A, signals that a patent's claims describe a technical approach — in that case, controlling particle size growth during lyophilization — that many later filings had to reference or design around. It is a measure of influence within the searched corpus, not a measure of current commercial importance or validity. Older patents mechanically accumulate more citations simply by having been in force longer, so a newer patent with fewer citations is not necessarily less significant; it may just be too recent to have been cited as heavily yet.
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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.