The origins of, and developments in, monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology are outlined, with discussion of past and possible future deal making trends. The different sections of the feature describe antibody production and humanisation, including difficulties with the HAMA response (the production of human anti-mouse antibodies), the technologies involved in antibody humanisation, existing MAb therapies and antibody fragmentation techniques; details are given of deals concerning these. Antibody fragment types and technologies discussed include monovalent Fabs (antigen-binding fragments), single-chain variable fragments (scFvs), variable regions of heavy and light chains joined by a short linker, domain antibodies (dAbs), diabodies, triabodies, minibodies, UniBodies#8482; and Nanobodies#174;.