The history of monoclonal antibody development – Progress, remaining challenges and future innovations

Liu, Justin K.H.

Some of the relative lack of commercial success of monoclonal antibodies may be attributed to the high costs of its administration. For example, in leukaemia treatment, it costs approximately £37,000 for a year's supply of alemtuzumab [30] . Furthermore in cancer treatment, antibodies are rarely, if ever, curative. For example, bevacizumab (avastin) only extends median survival times by 30% (20.3 vs. 15.6 months compared with standard chemotherapy) [31] . Side-effects include first-infusion reactions (e.g. fever-like symptoms) [32] . Thus, issues surrounding the cost of administration, a need for greater clinical efficacy and sideeffects still need to be addressed in order for monoclonal antibodies to become more commercially viable. Other factors that will influence the growth in commercialisation of monoclonal antibodies in the long-term include: quality control, patient compliance, a competitive pharmaceutical market and incentives for antibody development (e.g. infrastructure reimbursement programmes, etc.).