Monoclonal antibodies from plants: A new speed record

摘要

The medical use of mAbs has grown tremendously since the first mAb, Orthoclone, was approved in 1986 for treatment of transplant rejection. In addition to immunosuppressive therapy, mAbs have proven useful as treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, transplant rejection, inflammatory diseases, and a variety of cancers. The market for medical mAbs is estimated to exceed $20 billion, and > 150 are in clinical development. Although this progress is seemingly a biotechnology success story, the costs associated with a therapeutic mAb regimen can exceed $20,000 per year, which seriously may limit their current and future clinical use. These high costs are attributable to a number of factors, including the inherent expense of purification and cGMP for recombinant bio-logics and, to a significant extent, the cost of producing the raw material containing the antibody.