Protein Therapeutics: A Summary and Pharmacological Classification
Abstract
Once a rarely used subset of medical treatments, protein therapeutics have increased dramatically in number and frequency of use since the introduction of the first recombinant protein therapeutic--human insulin--25 years ago. Protein therapeutics already have a significant role in almost every field of medicine, but this role is still only in its infancy. This article overviews some of the key characteristics of protein therapeutics, summarizes the more than 130 protein therapeutics used currently and suggests a new classification of these proteins according to their pharmacological action.
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Protein therapeutics have inherent advantages over small molecule drugs because they are highly specific and have complex functions in the body, causing less interference with normal biological processes and fewer adverse effects.
“Protein therapeutics, often referred to as biopharmaceuticals or biologics, have inherent advantages over small molecule drugs as they are highly specific and have complex functions in the body. As a result, they tend to cause less interference with normal biological processes and fewer adverse effects [2].”
From Current PAT Landscape in the Downstream Processing of Biopharmaceuticals (2025) · cites this paper as [2]
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- Authors
- Leader, B., Baca, Q. J., & Golan, D. E.
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
- Published
- 2008-01
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 21-39
- ISSN
- 1474-1776
- 1474-1784
- Cited by
- 1,913
- References
- 8
- Language
- en
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