Humans have various needs in their daily lives – the right to food and shelter are among the most basic of human needs. After all, survival instincts are innate in all of us and the human body can only function well without food and water for a limited period of time. Then, there are other secondary needs also requiring our attention. Our health, for instance, needs as much tender loving care from us if want to live a long quality life for all the years of our lives.
There’s a catch, though. The more our technology progresses, the more complex diseases and ailments that affect humans have become. These microbes also evolve and have even rendered some antibiotics useless as they have grown resistant to the drug’s therapeutic effects. In a way, it has contributed to the rising costs of medicine and health care but there is also another reason why drugs keep getting more expensive through the years – medical/scientific research. More extensive and expensive researches and studies are done in various parts of the globe for various issues that mankind faces. Those that pertain to health are the most costly and require the most effort too.
Conventional medicines are stitched together by chemists in large factories using other chemicals as building blocks. Their molecular structures are well defined and relatively simple. Aspirin, for example, contains just 21 atoms (nine carbons, eight hydrogens and four oxygens) bonded together to form a particular shape. A single aspirin tablet – even kid-sized – contains trillions of copies of the drug molecule.
Biologic drugs are a different story. This class of medication is not synthesized chemically – instead they are harvested directly from biology, as their name suggests. Most modern biologics are assembled inside vats – or bioreactors – that house genetically engineered microbes or mammalian cell cultures. Efforts are underway to make them in plants.
Biologic drugs can be whole cells, alive or dead. They can be the biomolecules produced by cells, like antibodies, which are normally secreted by our immune system’s B cells. Or they can be some of the internal components of cells, like enzymes.
(Via: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biologics-the-pricey-drugs-transforming-medicine/)
As most conventional medicines are no longer that effective in treating a list of diseases and ailments that keep on getting longer each day, looking for alternative solutions should be done now while we still have time. Biologic drugs are unlike your regular OTC or prescription drug since you can’t really tell what’s in them. They often come in liquid preparations and are among the fastest rising drug categories in America.
Biologic drugs can be whole cells, alive or dead. They can be the biomolecules produced by cells, like antibodies, which are normally secreted by our immune system's B cells. Or they can be some of the internal components of cells, like enzymes.
Biologics are typically much larger molecules than those found in conventional pharmaceuticals, and in many cases their exact composition is unknown (or even unknowable). You're unlikely to find biologic drugs in tablet form – they tend to be delicate molecules that are happiest in liquid solution.
While biologics are one of the fastest-growing drug categories in the U.S., they aren't exactly new. The Biologics Control Act, passed in 1902, was the first law aimed at ensuring the safety of some of the earliest biologics – vaccines. Congress was moved to pass the law after a contaminated batch of diphtheria shots left 13 children dead. Jim, the horse from which the diphtheria antitoxin had been extracted, had contracted tetanus.
This multi-million dollar industry is perhaps the future of modern medicine. The drugs that we take to combat sickness should also keep up with the health needs of the times. Even if we think it’s a novel concept, the truth is that the field of biologics has been in use for thousands of years. It is founded on the body’s processes right down to the cellular level. Vaccines are a fine example of biologics at work. And expect to see more advances in this field to help humans deal with the issues we are having right now involving our health and well-being.
The blog article The Evolution Of Biologic Drugs Find more on: IPacBlog
source https://ipaction.org/blog/the-evolution-of-biologic-drugs/
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