What are biologics

Biologics are typically highly specific and potent medicines. They are produced by living cells.

They can be composed of:

• proteins
• genetic materials (nucleic acids)
• sugars
• or may be complex combinations of these three substances.

Biotechnology, commonly described as genetic engineering, is the use of DNA to produce very selective proteins. Most biologics are made by harvesting medically active proteins which are produced or secreted by genetically engineered cells.

In contrast to biologics, chemically based low molecular weight (LMW) drugs are mainly synthesized by adding and mixing together known chemicals and reagents using a series of controlled and predictable chemical reactions.

 

Biologics bring benefits to patients

Biologics are an important means of delivering the right medicine to the right patient. They give us important new therapeutic options for addressing unmet medical need. Biologics have several properties that make them work very well in patients.

Biologics are more selective than traditional low-molecular-weight (LMW) drugs. They usually only "attack" their disease target, and do not affect healthy tissues or cells.
Most biologics are proteins, and as such, are degraded exactly the same way as other proteins in the body. As a result, patients taking biologics drugs tend to have less side effects than with synthesized chemical drugs.

Biologics have a long half-life in the human body. The half-life of a drug is the time it takes for it to lose half of its beneficial/therapeutic activity. As a therapeutic antibody can be active as long as 14-25 days and therefore can remain effective for weeks, patients do not need to take biologics as often as LMW medicines which usually need to be taken once, twice or even three times daily.