Antibodies to watch in 2026

The Antibodies to Watch article series provides annual updates on commercial late-stage clinical development, regulatory review, and marketing approvals of antibody therapeutics. Since the first article was published in 2010, the late-stage pipeline has grown from 26 antibody therapeutics to over 200, while during the same time numerous molecules in late-stage studies either transitioned to regulatory review and were approved or were terminated. In this installment of the series, we recap first marketing approvals granted to 19 antibody therapeutics in 2025, discuss 26 molecules currently in regulatory review, including the bispecific antibody-drug conjugate izalontamab brengitecan, and predict which molecules of the 209 currently in the commercial late-stage pipeline might transition to regulatory review by the end of 2026. Most antibody therapeutics in the latter category are for non-cancer indications (16/21, 76%) and have a conventional format (13/21, 62%), but the category also includes numerous antibody-oligo or -drug conjugates, such as delpacibart etedesiran, delpacibart zotadirsen, zeleciment rostudirsen, sonesitatug vedotin, trastuzumab pamirtecan, and ifinatamab deruxtecan, as well as the bispecific petosemtamab. As antibody therapeutics development is a global enterprise, we also discuss trends in annual first approvals granted to antibody therapeutics in any country since 2010, stratified by the antibody's country of origin, documenting the notable increases in the total number of first approvals and those approved first in China. Finally, to benchmark the time typically required for clinical development and regulatory review, we calculated this period for recently approved antibody therapeutic products stratified by their therapeutic area, mechanism of action, format, and country of origin. Our data show that the development and approval period were typically ~6 years, but on average this period was shorter for China-originated products.