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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/antibody-engineering-and-formats-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Biotech & Genomics · Patent LandscapeAntibody Engineering and Formats Patents: Bispecifics, ADCs and the Filing Slowdown
- Filings have plateaued, not grown. activity peaked at 530 families in 2021 and has declined since, with 2026 running well below the 2022 midpoint of 495.
- Two foundational bispecific filings anchor the field. WO2008119353A1 (1,127 citations) and WO2006020258A2 (939 citations) sit under most subsequent bispecific-format claims.
- Momentum is cooling even among the most active filers. every tracked assignee shows a year-on-year decline in the latest year, from -33% to -100%, suggesting consolidation around existing claim positions rather than new filing.
4,806
Published Records
30%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-21%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of antibody engineering and formats work — bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and the supporting claims around affinity maturation, humanization, linker-payload chemistry, aggregation and developability. The search spans C07K16, A61K39 and A61K47, the IPC classes that hold most antibody composition and formulation claims, filtered to documents that name these engineering concepts directly in title or claims text.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend understate true filing activity for those years and should be read as directional rather than final.
Filing activity by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
4,806 patent families make up this landscape, spanning eight IPC subclasses and six major receiving offices. The trend line and technology split below show where claim density has built up and where it is thinning.
A field past its filing peak
Filings rose from 342 in 2017 to a peak of 530 in 2021, held near that level through 2022 (495), and have since declined to 41 in the partial 2026 year. Read alongside the publication lag, this looks less like a collapse and more like a maturing field where core antibody-format claims are already staked out and new filers face denser prior art.
Concentration in peptide and medicinal-preparation classes
C07K (peptides and proteins) covers 4,308 of the 4,806 families and A61K (medicinal preparations) covers 3,394, confirming that most activity is composition-of-matter and formulation claims rather than manufacturing process. G01N (analysis and testing, 332), C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis, 243) and C40B (combinatorial libraries, 51) are comparatively thin, marking areas where claim space is less crowded.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,806 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Antibody Engineering and Formats with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about antibody engineering and formats and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaFoundational Filings
The most-cited records anchoring this space
Representative Filing
SG158400B — Genentech
GENENTECH, INC.
This Genentech family, filed from a set of 2007-2008 US provisional applications, claims compositions of matter for treating hematopoietic tumors in mammals, built around antibody-based therapeutic compositions and their methods of use.Abstract text is drawn directly from the filing and may reference incorporated priority applications.
View full filing detailsTop-cited patent families
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2008119353A1 | Bispecific antibodies and methods for production thereof | 1,127 |
| 2 | WO2006020258A2 | Novel tetravalent bispecific antibody | 939 |
| 3 | WO1996016673A1 | Method of promoting an immune response with a bispecific antibody | 633 |
| 4 | WO2005061547A2 | Bispecific antibodies | 615 |
| 5 | WO2003074569A2 | Bispecific antibody point mutations for enhancing rate of clearance | 487 |
| 6 | US5877289A | Tissue factor compositions and ligands for the specific coagulation of vasculature | 421 |
| 7 | US6129914A | Bispecific antibody effective to treat B-cell lymphoma and cell line | 390 |
| 8 | US20140099254A1 | Combination therapy for inducing immune response to disease | 381 |
| 9 | US20090263392A1 | Methods of modifying antibodies for purification of bispecific antibodies | 370 |
| 10 | US6004555A | Methods for the specific coagulation of vasculature | 309 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward 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.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data indicates
Three patterns stand out once filing counts, citations and co-filing behaviour are put side by side.
Filing trajectory
530 → 41
peak (2021) vs. latest partial year
Growth has stalled since 2022
The midpoint year, 2022, filed 495 families — nearly matching the 2021 peak. Every year since has fallen short, and the decline holds even after accounting for publication lag. New entrants are filing into a field where the core bispecific and ADC format claims are already occupied.
Trend basis: 2017-2026 annual counts
Citation concentration
1,127 citations
top-cited family, WO2008119353A1
A small set of priority filings sets the boundaries
The five most-cited records are all bispecific-antibody filings dating from 1996 to 2008. Their citation counts (487-1,127) dwarf anything filed in the last decade, which is typical of a searched corpus but also confirms that bispecific format claims trace back to a narrow set of foundational documents.
Citation counts favour older records by construction
Co-filing structure
10 pairs
co-assignee relationships identified
Collaboration is rare and lopsided
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and one pair — Amgen Research (Munich) with Amgen — accounts for 177 shared filings, far ahead of any other pairing. Most assignees in this space file independently rather than through joint ventures.
Based on identified co-assignee pairs
Momentum reversal
-33% to -100%
YoY change across tracked leaders
Even active filers are pulling back
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including Regeneron, Genentech and Roche entities, filed fewer families in the latest year than the year before. None show flat or growing output, which points to a field consolidating around existing positions rather than expanding claim territory.
Latest-year filings vs. prior year, by assignee
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Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Assignee Landscape
Who holds the claim positions
Filing activity concentrates among a small group of large biopharma assignees, with Amgen's Munich research unit and its parent forming the strongest co-filing relationship in the dataset. Recent momentum has slowed across the board rather than shifting toward new entrants.
Deepest co-filing tie
177 shared families
Amgen Research (Munich) + Amgen
A single dominant internal pairing
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links Amgen's Munich research arm to its US parent, at more than five times the volume of the next co-filing pairs (Roche/Genentech and Roche/Hoffmann-La Roche entities, both at 32).
Co-assignee pair analysis
Slowing leaders
-50% to -83% YoY
across Regeneron, Amgen, Genentech
Established filers are pulling back together
Regeneron, Sunshine Guojian (Akeso), Amgen, Roche and Genentech all recorded year-on-year declines in their latest tracked filing year, ranging from -33% to -83%. None of the tracked leaders increased output, suggesting the slowdown is field-wide rather than firm-specific.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Receiving-office spread
949 US filings
leading office, ahead of EPO (787)
US and Europe anchor filing strategy
The United States leads with 949 filings, followed by the European Patent Office (787) and WIPO/PCT (479). Australia and Israel each sit at 440, and Canada at 363, indicating that applicants are pursuing a fairly standard set of major-market jurisdictions rather than concentrating narrowly.
Receiving office counts
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 4 | -50% |
| Akeso Biopharma (Zhongshan) | 3 | -79% |
| Amgen Inc. | 2 | -50% |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd | 2 | -33% |
| Genentech, Inc. | 1 | -83% |
| Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| Genmab A/S | 0 | -100% |
| Hoffmann-La Roche AG | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The trend and assignee data point to specific next questions for freedom-to-operate and portfolio strategy work.
Map claim scope around the top-cited families
WO2008119353A1 and WO2006020258A2 carry the heaviest citation load in bispecific formats. Before filing new bispecific composition claims, checking dependent-claim scope against these two families is a reasonable first step.
Explore citing families in EurekaWatch the co-filing structure for licensing signals
With only ten co-assignee pairs identified and one dominant internal pairing, most collaboration in this space happens through licensing or acquisition rather than joint filing — worth tracking directly rather than inferring from co-assignment data alone.
Trace assignee relationships in EurekaRe-check the under-claimed sub-areas
Combinatorial library screening and enzymatic conjugation chemistries show materially lower filing counts than core antibody composition classes. That gap may reflect genuine white space or simply a different classification pattern — worth verifying claim-by-claim.
Run a white-space search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on antibody engineering patents
The most-cited documents in this landscape are WO2008119353A1 (1,127 citations) and WO2006020258A2 (939 citations), both foundational bispecific antibody filings dating from the mid-2000s. Their citation counts are far higher than any filing from the last decade, which is typical for older documents in a searched corpus, but it also reflects the fact that much of today's bispecific format work builds on claim structures first laid out in these families. Anyone designing a new bispecific format should review dependent claims in these two documents specifically, not just the independent claims.
No. Filings rose steadily from 342 in 2017 to a peak of 530 in 2021, held near that level in 2022 at 495, and have declined every year since, reaching 41 in the partial 2026 year. Even allowing for the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication that understates the most recent years, the trend from 2021 onward is a decline rather than a plateau. This pattern is more consistent with a field where core composition claims are already staked out than with one still expanding into new territory.
Filing activity concentrates among established biopharma assignees, with Amgen and its Munich research unit forming the strongest co-filing relationship in the dataset at 177 shared families. Roche, Genentech, Regeneron and Akeso also appear among the more active filers, though every one of these assignees showed a year-on-year decline in their most recent tracked filing year. No new entrant in the recent-momentum data is filing at a growing rate, which suggests the competitive set at the top has been stable for some time.
IPC subclasses tied to combinatorial antibody library screening (C40B, 51 records), enzymatic conjugation chemistry (C12P, 243 records) and heterocyclic linker scaffolds (C07D, 61 records) show materially lower filing density than the core C07K and A61K classes, which together cover the large majority of the dataset. That gap can mean genuine white space for new claims, or it can simply reflect that this technology is classified elsewhere; either way it is worth a targeted claim-by-claim check before assuming freedom to operate. Analytical developability assays under G01N (332 records) sit in a similar middle ground.
SG158400B is a Genentech family built from a set of 2007-2008 US provisional applications, directed to antibody-based compositions of matter for treating hematopoietic tumors and methods of using them. Its scope is specific to the therapeutic compositions and methods described in that priority chain, so it does not broadly block antibody engineering work outside hematopoietic oncology indications. Anyone working on a related composition should still check the claim language directly, since composition-of-matter claims in this family may extend further than the abstract alone suggests.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Antibody Engineering and Formats covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.