We have presented the encoded beads technology for fast development of affinity ligands for purification of biopharmaceuticals. The technology is based on solid-phase combinatorial synthesis of affinity ligands, where each ligand is bound to a polymer bead. The unique feature of the encoded beads technology is the fact that every polymer bead holds one affinity ligand and one code. In this way simply reading the code of the bead derives the exact chemical structure of the affinity ligand bound to any bead (Figure 4). This eliminates the need for traditional spectroscopic analysis and enables screening of a whole combinatorial library of affinity ligands in just one week (Step 4). A first set of specific affinity ligands can be developed in six weeks (Steps 1 through 4).