Antibody Humanization Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Antibody Humanization and Affinity Maturation Patents
Concentration is modest at the top. the leading assignee holds 2,846 records but the top 5 combined account for only 16.9% of all 52,027 records in scope — this field has no single gatekeeper. Annual filings rose from 995 in 2017 to a peak of 1,661 in 2021, then fell to 1,126 by 2024 — a -32% decline over that three-year span. Years after 2024 are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, so treat the most recent bars as a floor rather than a ceiling.
- 1REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS INC5.5%
- 2NOVARTIS AG3.3%
- 3GENENTECH INC3.2%
- 4BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO2.5%
- 5ABBVIE INC2.4%
See the full antibody humanization and affinity maturation 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 about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in antibody humanization and affinity maturation?
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 2,846 of the 52,027 records in scope, but that is not a dominant position: the top 5 assignees combined account for only 16.9% of all records, and the top 10 reach 24.1%. This is a field with a long tail of active filers rather than one or two companies controlling the claim space, so competitive analysis needs to look well beyond the single largest filer.
Is patent filing in antibody humanization still growing?
Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 1,661 records and had fallen to 1,126 by 2024, a -32% decline over that three-year span. That is the most recent year the trend can be treated as complete, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures in any chart will understate real activity rather than reflect a further collapse.
What patent classifications cover antibody humanization technology?
The dominant classification is C07K, covering peptides and proteins, which appears on 34.1% of all 52,027 records. A61K (medicinal preparations) follows at 25.3%, and A61P (therapeutic activity) at 16.9%. Because a single patent record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap and sum to more than 100%, reflecting how often humanization claims are tied to both a molecule composition and a therapeutic use.
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 Antibody Humanization and Affinity Maturation 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.