PurePEG Research · Literature data

Research Output on PEGylation, Click Chemistry and PROTACs, 2000 to 2025

PubMed records on PROTACs rose from 10 in 2015 to 1,059 in 2025, the fastest growth of the five conjugation topics we tracked, while PEGylation records fell 31.6% from 1,561 to 1,068.

By PurePEG · Published 12 Nov 2026 · Data retrieved 12 Nov 2026

1,059PubMed records on PROTACs in 2025, up from 10 in 2015PubMed E-utilities, publication years 2015 and 2025
6.6xgrowth in lipid nanoparticle records, 334 to 2,207 (ADC records: 6.5x, 310 to 2,020)PubMed, 2015 vs 2025
1,068PEGylation records in 2025, against a peak of 1,574 in 2014PubMed, 2000 to 2025
56.7PEGylation records per 100,000 PubMed records in 2025, down from 124.1 in 2015PubMed; denominator = all records with that publication year
+35.3%change in click chemistry records, 745 in 2015 to 1,008 in 2025PubMed, 2015 vs 2025

PubMed records per year, 2000 to 2025

PEGylationClick chemistryPROTACsAntibody-drug conjugatesLipid nanoparticles
05001,0001,5002,0002,500200020052010201520202025
05001,0001,5002,0002,500200020102020
PubMed records per publication year matching each fixed query (titles and abstracts; click chemistry also by MeSH heading). Queried 12 Nov 2026.

Growth from 2015 to 2025, ranked

Topic201520252025 vs 2015Per 100k records, 2015Per 100k records, 2025All years
PROTACs101,059105.9x0.856.34,829
Lipid nanoparticles3342,2076.6x26.5117.212,305
Antibody-drug conjugates3102,0206.5x24.6107.311,244
Click chemistry7451,0081.4x59.253.511,389
PEGylation1,5611,0680.7x124.156.722,520

Records per year

YearAll PubMedPEGylationClick chemistryPROTACsAntibody-drug conjugatesLipid nanoparticles
2000532,6378402414
2001547,64414613216
2002565,48621133027
2003594,60229143432
2004639,789471154639
2005700,541520266456
2006750,4096496811757
2007786,77677110221274
2008837,23782716951988
2009877,684860224320123
2010942,3051,133324927175
20111,020,8371,318538263213
20121,090,4771,3845723105257
20131,150,0521,4606633167294
20141,205,8391,5747547240354
20151,258,0531,56174510310334
20161,285,4891,40077413371462
20171,304,3551,26473336386444
20181,351,7201,22173169481408
20191,418,9851,107761164574454
20201,641,2731,066739279693587
20211,787,5631,132725388855842
20221,783,6889996254868911,005
20231,697,8909227136161,1311,156
20241,740,3648968508191,4131,570
20251,882,5141,0681,0081,0592,0202,207

What this means for researchers

  • PROTAC literature went from almost nothing to over a thousand records a year. 10 records in 2015, 279 in 2020 and 1,059 in 2025. Linker design is a recurring topic in degrader research; PurePEG lists PROTAC linkers for research use.
  • ADC and LNP research grew about 6.5x and 6.6x. Both passed 2,000 records in 2025 (2,020 and 2,207). Related research reagents: cleavable linkers and PEG-lipids.
  • Click chemistry grew more slowly than PubMed. Records grew 35.3% from 2015 to 2025, while all PubMed records grew 49.6%, so its share went from 59.2 to 53.5 per 100,000 records. See clickable linkers.
  • PEGylation is a mature field. Records peaked at 1,574 in 2014 and were 1,068 in 2025. Fewer titles and abstracts use the word; PEG chemistry also appears in papers on ADC linkers, PEG-lipids and degraders that may not use it.
Research use only. PurePEG supplies PEG linkers and conjugation reagents for laboratory research. They are not drugs, are not GMP material and are not for use in humans or animals. This page reports public regulatory and research data from the sources named below. It is not medical advice and says nothing about the safety or effectiveness of any product.

Method

We counted PubMed records per publication year with the NCBI E-utilities esearch service (https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&rettype=count), adding AND YYYY[dp] to each query. The denominator for the per-100,000 rate is all PubMed records with that publication year (YYYY[dp]). Queries, exactly as sent:

  • PEGylation: pegylation[tiab] OR pegylated[tiab] OR pegylating[tiab] (22,520 records, all years)
  • Click chemistry: "click chemistry"[tiab] OR "click chemistry"[mh] (11,389 records, all years)
  • PROTACs: PROTAC[tiab] OR PROTACs[tiab] OR "proteolysis targeting chimera"[tiab] OR "proteolysis targeting chimeras"[tiab] OR "proteolysis targeting chimera"[mh] (4,829 records, all years)
  • Antibody-drug conjugates: "antibody-drug conjugate"[tiab] OR "antibody-drug conjugates"[tiab] OR "antibody drug conjugate"[tiab] OR "antibody drug conjugates"[tiab] (11,244 records, all years)
  • Lipid nanoparticles: "lipid nanoparticle"[tiab] OR "lipid nanoparticles"[tiab] (12,305 records, all years)

Limits

  • PubMed keeps adding records for past years, so the 2025 counts will rise a little as indexing catches up. We stop at 2025, the last full year.
  • Title and abstract searches miss papers that use other wording and catch some papers that mention a term in passing; the PROTAC query can also match unrelated uses of the acronym, which matters only in the early years when counts were tiny.
  • A record is a PubMed entry (articles, reviews, preprints indexed in PubMed and other types), not a count of distinct studies.
  • The five topics overlap; a paper on PEGylated lipid nanoparticles counts in both sets.

Sources

Cite this study

Suggested citation:

PurePEG. (2026). Research output on PEGylation, click chemistry and PROTACs, 2000 to 2025. PurePEG Research. https://purepeg.com/research/pegylation-publication-trends/ (PubMed queried 12 Nov 2026).

Download the data (CSV): yearly counts and per-100,000 rates for all five topics, with the exact queries. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.

More: every FDA-approved PEGylated drug · registered trials · PEGylation statistics · all research

Working with PEG linkers in the lab?

PurePEG supplies monodisperse PEG linkers, PEG-lipids and bioconjugation and click-chemistry reagents for research use only. Order listed sizes online or ask for a custom quantity; we reply to quote requests within 24 hours. We do not provide GMP material.

Contact PurePEGRead the PEG buyer's guide