Monoclonal Antibodies

The first monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were introduced successfully into medicine in the late 1990s. mAbs comprise about 20% of the new drugs approved each year, reflecting a revolution in medicinal chemistry strategy. The majority of therapeutic mAbs are for oncological and immunological/infectious diseases, but rapid expansion into other disease areas is occurring. It can be argued that mAbs are not strictly speaking antibodies because they do not engage in an antigen–antibody interaction However, it is accepted that their nomenclature should relate to IgG and so the term antibody is used. Comparable with the search for orally bioavailable insulin, and the quest for orally administered drugs for asthma, the possibility of treating autoimmune diseases, cancer, infections, and the like, with orally administered mAbs that work as their parentally administered formulations do, is incredibly exciting to those in drug development.