Trends involving monoclonal antibody (mAb) research and commercialization: A scientometric analysis of IMS Lifecycle R&D Focus Database (1980-2016).

This article aims to explore the trends of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) research and commercialization, mainly to examine the development trajectories by a contrastive exploration of successful and unsuccessful mAb. This work is based on two sets of R&D project reports, consisting of 517 discontinued mAb project reports and 64 marketed mAb project reports, from IMS Lifecycle R&D Focus. The analysis of drug development processes will provide the basic evidences of mAb technology commercialization. We examined the mAb research and commercialization from three perspectives: (1) Countries with mAb research activity; (2) Organizations participating in mAb research and development; and (3) Clusters of keywords (indication and class description) regarding mAb. The technology factor, the market factor and the abilities of participating firms to pursue commercialization were analyzed. Through data analysis, we have discovered that the research and development on mAb has reached a mature and diversified stage.