Current advances in the development of high-throughput purification strategies for the generation of therapeutic antibodies

The demand for therapeutic proteins, and particularly monoclonal antibodies, continues to grow within the biopharmaceutical industry. This is illustrated by the monoclonal antibody Humira® (adalimumab) having the highest sales of any drug in 2014. With the increasing numbers of biologics entering the market and the emergence of biosimilars and biobetters, costs need to be reduced in order for companies to remain competitive. High-throughput purification can provide the tools to meet the challenge of producing the thousands of potential drug candidates generated in drug discovery while simultaneously providing robust and cost-effective purification strategies in both research and production. In this review, we discuss the many different methodologies and automation technologies that can be employed in high-throughput purification.