Antibody Uses/Therapeutics - Subtopic Landscape

A synthetic biology perspective

The subset of SynBio – Antibody uses/therapeutics related patents were further investigated to identify subtopics and assess trending areas. The topic model leverages a hybrid approach based on the optimised extractive summary for each publication. Using a combination of topic discovery via fine-tuned transformer based deep learning and ground truth cross referencing via keyword and classification codes. The process enables a patent to belong to more than one topic for accurate multi-classification trends, accounting for multiple invention embodiments. Please see the topic model page for further details regarding the topic model methodology to avoid duplication here.

Subtopic counts

The identified subtopics within the antibody uses/therapeutics topic are shown in figure 1. The topics are ranked based on the total number of published applications since 2015. A patent application can be counted more than once as it can belong to multiple topics.

The classification of documents across the top 5 subtopics are as follows; the filing of sequences proxy subtopic (SED ID proxy) (75.3%), cancer therapeutics (55.9%), immunomodulators (32.8%), fusion polypeptides (31.7%) and immunoassay related(28.9%). The largest subtopic, biosequence related, is a proxy for applications which have disclosed a sequence or sequence ID. Cancer therapeutics represents a major treatment area. In particular, monoclonal antibodies (ranked 14th) are a type of cancer treatment, antibody conjugates such as ADCs (ranked 8th) guide cytotoxic payloads to cancer cells and bispecific antibodies (ranked 17th) can be synthetically engineered to target t cells to kill cancerous cells. An important category, fusion polypeptides (ranked 4th) possess targeting capabilities through antibody derivatives as recombinant therapeutics. The remaining subtopics reveal the applications of antibody based technology for various genetic engineering applications such as targeting of gene therapy, diagnostics, treatment of other disease areas and emerging therapeutic areas such as immunotherapy and chimeric antigen receptors.

The antibody uses/therapeutics subtopic publication year trends are shown in figure 2. Publication trends discussed below are based on EP A1/A2 applications, identified patents can belong to more than one subtopic due to multiple invention embodiments.

In figure 2, the fastest growing subtopics identified of note and based on compound annual growth rates during 2016-24 are nanobody / single domain (31.3%), multispecific (28.1%), t-cell (26.9%), single chain (26.7%), gene therapy (24.8%), fusion polypeptides (24.3%), chimeric, humanised, etc. (23.5%), cancer therapeutics (22.4%) and respiratory & cardiovascular system (22%) above the 20% growth rate threshold.

Subtopic top 20 assignees distributions (published since 2015)

The patent portfolios of the top 20 assignees within the SynBio – antibody uses/therapeutics dataset are analysed in figure 3. The portfolios are restricted to publications during 2015-24, mapped to the subtopics identified, the counts represent total EPO publications.

The heatmap in figure 3, reveals the distribution of the top 20 assignees since 2015, publications can be assigned to more than one subtopic, reflecting multiple invention embodiments. HOFFMANN LA ROCHE has filed the most applications disclosing sequence ID’s, many of the top assignee’s are active in this subtopic. Cancer therapeutics represents a key therapeutic area for many of the leading assignees, BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB is lower ranked but has 184 publications, the French research organisation INSERM is also very active here, REGENERON (258 publications) and NOVARTIS (253 publications) are also key assignees together with HOFFMANN. Many of the top assignees identified have diverse portfolios across the antibody topic area, JANSSEN BIOTECH is focused on multispecific antibodies. HOFFMANN and REGENERON are leading assignees in the bispecific antibodies subtopic.

The analysis does not account for earlier publications prior to 2015, which may have contributed to companies developing market share, etc. and potential licensing and acquisitions (subsidiaries). The analysis is an informative guide as some specific subtopics have strict content boundaries to enable differentiation, whilst others are broader to capture more generic areas.