Biopharmaceutical Production by Recombinant DNA Technology: Future Perspectives

Biopharmaceuticals are complex therapeutic molecules derived by recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) technology and produced from microbial cells. The category of biopharmaceuticals includes cytokines, interferons, interleukins, hormones, hematopoiesis-stimulating factors, growth factors, clotting factors, vaccines, enzymes, monoclonal antibodies, cell therapy, antisense drugs, and peptide therapeutics. Insulin, the first biopharmaceutical, was developed in 1982, and in later years, over 300 biologics have been approved for the management of various clinical conditions. In 2020, five of the top ten selling medications are biologics. Biopharmaceuticals have revolutionized the way that many diseases, including diabetes, are treated since they can be customized to meet the unique medical conditions of individual patients. With biotechnology, the drug can be genetically modified using rDNA technologies to alter specificities for individual diseases. The discovery of rDNA technology helps in new drug development and has transformed the biopharmaceutical industry. The objective of this chapter is to discuss biopharmaceutical production by rDNA technology.