Multimodal chromatography: debottlenecking the downstream processing of monoclonal antibodies

The commercial potential of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has been continuously increasing during the last years alongside with the number of approved mAb-based drugs and clinical trials. Despite their effectiveness and safety, the general access to this class of biopharmaceuticals is barred by high selling prices. Downstream processing is now considered the bottleneck in the manufacturing of mAbs. Therefore, the design of novel and economic operations and their implementation in the current technology platforms constitutes a pressing need. This review provides an insight into the current state-of-the-art in mAbs purification, focusing on multimodal chromatography as one of the viable options to upgrade the established purification train.