henhao
Sign in
Scientific Communication & EducationmAbs
Peer-reviewed journal article

YAbS: The Antibody Society's antibody therapeutics database

Puneet RawatiD, Silvia CrescioliiD, R. PrabakaraniD, Divya SharmaiD, Victor GreiffiD, Janice M. ReichertiD

Abstract

Therapeutic antibodies have gained prominence in recent years due to their precision in targeting specific diseases. As these molecules become increasingly essential in modern medicine, comprehensive data tracking and analysis are critical for advancing research and ensuring successful clinical outcomes. YAbS, The Antibody Societys Antibody Therapeutics Database, serves as a vital resource for monitoring the development and clinical progress of therapeutic antibodies. The database catalogues detailed information on over 2,900 commercially sponsored investigational antibody candidates that have entered clinical study since 2000, as well as all approved antibody therapeutics. Data for the late-stage clinical pipeline and antibody therapeutics in regulatory review or approved (over 450 molecules) are openly accessible (https://db.antibodysociety.org). Antibody-related information includes molecular format, targeted antigen, current development status, indications studied, and the clinical development timeline of the antibodies, as well as the geographical region of company sponsors. Furthermore, the database supports in-depth industry trends analysis, facilitating the identification of innovative developments and the assessment of success rates within the field. This resource is continually updated and refined, providing invaluable insights to researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals engaged in antibody therapeutics development.

PDFDOIData
Full-text digest ↓

02 /Specification & Classification

Click any tag to browse matching papers
Citations
8
FWCI
4.59
Field percentile
top 5%
OpenAlex Topics

In-depth summary

✦ Multi-agent verified full-text synthesis

Claude Opus 5.5 · xhigh effort · 7 Nov 2026 · from the full text of version 1 (10 Feb 2025) · CC BY 4.0

YAbS catalogues over 2,900 commercially sponsored antibody therapeutics, from clinical entry since 2000 to approval, with milestone-date filtering for pipeline, trend and phase-length analyses; over 450 are openly accessible.

The Antibody Society tracks phase transition rates, approval rates and phase lengths of commercial antibody therapeutics, and the authors judge public (IMGT/mAb-KG, DrugBank, TheraSAbDab) and commercial (Beacon) databases short on clinical, regulatory and business milestone data or coverage. YAbS adds a standardized format and molecular-category scheme and, the authors believe uniquely, filtering by milestone dates such as clinical entry, Phase 2 or 3 start and first approval.

Key results

  1. ShownYAbS is a web database of commercially sponsored antibody therapeutics. It annotates format, molecular category, target, development status, therapeutic area, sponsor location and milestone dates in a standardized way. Users can search it with quick or advanced filters and export the results.

    Over 2,900 molecules as of January 2025 (clinical entry on or after January 1, 2000, plus approved antibodies that entered the clinic earlier); over 450 approved, in-review or late-stage molecules are openly accessible. Updated bimonthly from daily collection. Results appear as four Chart.js pie charts plus a sortable table; molecule pages list milestone dates, trials, deals and termination reasons. · Abstract; Introduction; Decoding the YAbS database and antibody…

  2. Shown55% of antibodies that entered clinical study after 2000 are still in active clinical development. That active pipeline is mostly early-phase, mostly for cancer, and mostly sponsored by companies in China or the US.

    Of n=2709 clinical-stage molecules, 55% are active (n=1505). Of the active molecules, nearly three-quarters are in Phase 1 or 1/2 and 66% are cancer treatments. Most sponsors are headquartered in China or the US (Figure 3; data snapshot of December 12, 2024). · Use case 1: Assessment of clinical-stage…; Figure legends

  3. ShownAnnual commercial first-in-human (FIH) antibody studies rose substantially from 2010 to 2023, despite occasional one-year dips. Bi- and multispecifics and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) grew, and anti-HER2 programmes spread across many molecular categories.

    n=2138 FIH studies over 2010 to 2023. Counts fell from the prior year in 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2023 and rose again in 2013, 2017 and 2020. The 82 anti-HER2 FIH studies include ADCs, multispecifics, ADC multispecifics, immunoconjugates and radioimmunotherapy antibodies, alongside naked monospecifics (Figure 4). · Use case 2: Assessment of trends in antibody…; Figure legends

  4. SuggestedAmong US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antibodies, those for non-cancer indications took about 1 year longer on average than cancer antibodies to go from clinical start to approval. The authors attribute the gap to longer late-stage trials and longer regulatory review.

    n=103 approved antibodies (clinical entry after January 1, 2000; approved by December 31, 2023); mean phase lengths with SD error bars. Across the top four non-cancer areas (n=47), cardiovascular/hemostasis agents averaged slightly less than 7 years in total and immune-mediated or inflammatory disease agents nearly 10 years. The authors propose that expedited FDA designations favour cancer drugs. · Use case 3: Assessment of milestone events for…; Figure legends

  5. SuggestedJust over half of approved cancer antibodies are naked monospecifics. These had a longer mean total clinical and regulatory period than ADCs or bispecific antibodies.

    n=46 approved cancer antibodies, grouped by molecular category (Figure 5E). Phase lengths cover the top three categories (n=44, Figure 5F). The authors note that relatively few ADCs and bispecifics have been approved, so these averages may change. · Use case 3: Assessment of milestone events for…; Figure legends

Methods, data and reproducibility

The Antibody Society built its antibody therapeutics dataset (begun in 2012) from public sources and standardized its format and molecular-category nomenclature. It serves the data through a Python 3.9/Django web application backed by an SQL database. Three use cases apply advanced-search filters and exported tables to pipeline status, first-in-human trends and FDA phase lengths.

  • YAbS dataset: commercially sponsored antibody therapeutics with clinical entry from January 1, 2000, plus all approved antibodies and some late-preclinical molecules · n = over 2,900 (January 2025); over 450 openly accessible
  • Use case 1: antibodies that entered clinical study after January 1, 2000 (snapshot of December 12, 2024) · human (clinical studies) · n = 2709 (1505 currently in clinical studies)
  • Use case 2: commercial first-in-human antibody studies started 2010 to 2023 · human (first-in-human studies) · n = 2138; 82 anti-HER2
  • Use case 3: FDA-approved antibodies that entered the clinic after January 1, 2000 and were approved by December 31, 2023 · human (clinical studies) · n = 103 (panels: 56 non-cancer, 46 cancer)
  • Public sources: company websites, press releases and presentations, clinical trial registries, regulatory agencies, WHO international non-proprietary name lists, TheraSAbDab, IMGT/mAb-DB, literature
Methods & tools
Python 3.9, Django, SQL database, Chart.js, TheraSAbDab, IMGT/mAb-DB, WHO INN lists
Data & accessions
https://db.antibodysociety.org/https://www.antibodysociety.org/antibody-therapeutics-product-data/https://www.antibodysociety.org/antibodies-in-late-stage-clinical-studies/
Reagents & environment
Web application written in Python 3.9 with Django; the dataset is held in an SQL database and result charts use Chart.js. No requirement files or containers are described.
Reproducibility gaps
No source code for the web application is linked. Records for early-stage and terminated antibodies are access-limited; only approved, in-review and late-stage molecules are open. Filter recipes (Supp. Figs S6, S7) and variable definitions (Supp. Table S1) are in supplements.
Limitations (5)
  • Companies often do not disclose details of preclinical and early-stage molecules. Target, Fc and light chain isotype, conjugated or fused components, and indications (when Phase 1 runs in healthy volunteers) may therefore be missing at any given time. · stated by the authors
  • Few ADCs and bispecific antibodies have been approved, so their average phase lengths may change as more reach approval. · stated by the authors
  • Data come from the public domain. The Antibody Society gives no warranty on accuracy, completeness or timeliness, and it restricts access to records for early-stage and terminated molecules. · stated by the authors
  • S7 says most of the 103 approved antibodies in Figure 5 were for cancer, but the legend gives n=56 for the non-cancer panel and n=46 for the cancer panel. The text alone cannot settle which is correct. · noted in this summary
  • The trend and phase-length comparisons are descriptive (means with SD bars, no statistical tests). Use cases 1 and 2 depend on early-stage and terminated records that outside users cannot openly access, so they cannot reproduce those analyses. · noted in this summary

Who should read:Read this if you analyse antibody therapeutic pipelines and need curated, date-stamped clinical and regulatory milestones by format, target or therapeutic area, and can work within partly restricted access.

Reproducibility ledger

Nobody has reported trying to reproduce this paper yet. Did you replicate an experiment or run the code? Your report saves the next lab a week.

Sign in to file a reproducibility report.

Related papers

Similarity Map
SelectedSame fieldCross-field
THISRaybould '19Dudzic '25Zhou '25Czerwinski '26Zhou '26Abanades '23
71% semantic matchImmunology
M. I. J. Raybould, C. Marks, A. P. Lewis+4 more·bioRxiv·Aug 12, 2019