The immunoglobulin process has lost most of its equipment
1 / 6
Ethanol fractionation and cold precipitation were how a litre of plasma became IgG. The filings have been removing vessels from that sequence. A polyanionic pre-treatment binds lipids and fibrinogen ahead of chromatography so the resin does not foul, and the applicant states yield rises from 65% to 90%. An earlier step removed a different unit operation: caprylic acid inactivates enveloped viruses, polyethylene glycol suppresses the aggregates caprylate would otherwise form, and one ultrafiltration pass strips both reagents, so no follow-up chromatography is needed.
Concentration is what moves a protein out of the infusion chair
2 / 6
Delivery changes are formulation problems before they are clinical ones. Alpha-1 antitrypsin reaches 100 to 200 mg/mL by single-pass tangential filtration against water, a route chosen because concentrating that far by conventional means aggregates the protein. That concentration is what makes a weekly subcutaneous dose possible at roughly 120% of the intravenous dose, holding the same trough level.
Market
The albumin decline now has a tax change behind it
3 / 6
Albumin fell about 20% in the second quarter. In China the average selling price is down 2% year to date, rivals are discounting 5 to 10% below the floor Hualan set, and lot releases fell 25% between October 2025 and April 2026.
Strategy
The 2026 plasma output is the same inventions in more countries
4 / 6
Where the work lands matters more than how much of it there is. Brazil carries 16 plasma patents, China 14, Europe 14 and the United States 14, with the rest spread across Japan, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Mexico. Diagnostics runs the other way, with 17 of its patents published in China against 16 in the United States.
Research
Two programmes leave the syringe and the litre behind
5 / 6
The most recent clinical move is immunoglobulin used as a topical drug. GRF312 is a 5% immunoglobulin eye drop for dry eye disease. The FDA cleared the investigational application in May 2025, and the phase 2 was designed for 100 patients with safety and tolerability as the primary measure. The premise is that the antibody mixture's broad anti-inflammatory action works on the surface of the eye, which the company describes as a potential first ocular-surface indication for an immunoglobulin.
Market
Egypt now carries the margin case as much as the sourcing case
6 / 6
The joint venture added €180 million for 2026 to 2029, taking total investment to €460 million, with the first phase of the complex due for inauguration in October 2026, a million litres collected this year and three million by 2029. The programme is certified by the European Medicines Agency, and 1.6 million vials have already been produced from Egyptian plasma. Its attributed contribution to group EBITDA exceeds €100 million in 2026. Fractionation does not start until late 2027 or early 2028, with full operation in 2030.
Research
What is being built
Documents by area
217
98
69
Market
What reaches buyers
Market news · Not available. News wasn't included when this radar was set up.
Immunoglobulin pays for the group and the fastest growth is under the skin
In the first half of 2026 group revenue reached €3,574 million, up 2.6% at constant currency, and net profit rose 28.7% to €227 million. Within that, intravenous immunoglobulin grew 12.5% and subcutaneous immunoglobulin 17.7%, the immunoglobulin segment as a whole grew 12.8% at constant rates, and Xembify grew 34% in the second quarter. Guidance was reiterated after a half described as in line with objectives.
Strategy
Where the money goes
Market news · Not available. News wasn't included when this radar was set up.
The portfolio has narrowed back onto plasma
Plasma Protein Therapeutics accounts for 217 of the 385 publications, Diagnostics 98 and Manufacturing and Fill-Finish 69. That balance understates the swing inside the period.
What's new · What changed since the last update?
1 Nov · October 2026 · 3 new documents
Highlights · 6
Signals to watch
The responder patent gets its first real test at Seville in November
Grifols presents its AMBAR real-world results at the Spanish neurology meeting in Seville on 17 to 21 November. The thing to check in that abstract is whether the headline effect is broken out by the four proteins the October filing reads, DLL1, VNN2, VAV3 and SUMF1.
Signals to watch
Watch for a number that turns the monitoring patent into a stopping rule
The MIP1 alpha filing defines a direction and no threshold: a fall or a stable level means the therapy is working, a rise means it is not. What a funder or a clinician needs before committing to a 24-week course is a cut-off, meaning how large a rise over what interval counts as failure.
Signals to watch
The responder family has published in Europe, China and Japan and has no US member so far
The four-protein test has now published through the international route and in Europe, China and Japan, with Japan arriving on 14 October. No US member of the family turned up in the search. A US application over the coming year would show the family is still being extended there; continued absence would leave the US as the market where the selection argument carries no patent.
Signals to watch
The filling grant is a sales argument for Grifols Engineering, and Grifols' own plants are the proof
The US grant on parallel-autoclave sterilization, published 20 October, lands in the same weeks that the first phase of the Egyptian complex was scheduled to open, with pharmaceutical filling and packaging among its three plants.
Innovation activity
Plasma Protein Therapeutics
Two patents published in the area this month, both from the same program: albumin plasma exchange for Alzheimer's disease and cognitive impairment. Neither introduces a new therapy. Both cover the measurement layer instead, the test that decides who should be treated and the marker that decides whether it worked.
Innovation activity
Manufacturing and Fill-Finish
The only publication in the area in October is a US patent, granted 20 October, on a sterile filling system. It describes a filling line fed by several autoclaves running in parallel, with a buffer between the autoclaves and the conveyor. While one autoclave sterilizes a batch, the others load, so the filling machine is never starved of containers. Containers stay open through sterilization to avoid the damage that depyrogenation tunnels cause at high temperature, and the buffer turns the autoclaves' stop-start output into a steady stream. Removing manual handling of containers in the clean zone is part of the claimed benefit.
Where the 3 landed
Plasma Protein Therapeutics2
Manufacturing and Fill-Finish1
Earlier updates
August 2026 · 15 new documentsGrifols 15 · Gen Probe 2 · Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida 1