Biotherapeutics: General Introduction

As an introduction to the field of biotherapeutics, this brief chapter will discuss some aspects related to the development, challenges, advances and current strategies for their commercialization. The different families of biotherapeutics that make the different sections of this book (i.e., proteins and peptides, nucleic acids, steroids, and cells) are briefly presented. In addition, the chapter briefly describes some biotherapeutics than have gained blockbuster status in recent years.