The Basics

Conditions treated

Biologics are mostly used to treat life-threatening or debilitating physical conditions that frequently posed therapeutic dilemmas in the past.

Over the past 30 years, biopharmaceuticals have helped to treat the following conditions:

  • Anaemia resulting from kidney (or other) disease with the help of erythropoietin alfa
  • Diabetes with the help of insulin
  • Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (low white blood cell counts) with the help of granulocyte-colony stimulating factors such as filgrastim, pegfilgrastim and lipegfilgrastim
  • Multiple sclerosis with the help of immunomodulators such as beta-interferon
  • Autoimmune disorders with the help of monoclonal antibodies such infliximab
  • Haemophilia with the help of blood coagulation factors, e.g., factor VIII and IX
  • Metabolic disorders such as Gaucher’s disease with the use of recombinant enzymes
  • Various infections such as those caused by human papillomavirus infections with the use of vaccines.1,3

While not all cancers respond to treatment with monoclonal antibodies, on a global scale monoclonal antibodies are used to treat a number of cancers, including:

  • Brain cancer
  • Breast cancer
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
  • Colorectal cancer
  • Head and neck cancers
  • Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Lung cancer
  • Melanoma
  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Prostate cancer
  • Stomach cancer7