ABSTRACT
The area of biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals such as proteins and nucleic acid-based
therapeutics has developed significantly during the last decade. The rapid advances in
molecular biology, genetics, and recombinant DNA technology will continuously
contribute to the development due to the greater understanding of the mechanisms
behind the cause and progress of diseases, new methods for target identification, advances
in production of biopharmaceuticals, and the development of innovative technologies for
formulation and delivery of biopharmaceuticals. This development will expand the list of
biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals and open for more and better treatments to the
benefit of patients. As an example, the recent discovery of small-interfering RNA
(siRNA) operating in mammalian cells has initiated a tremendous research activity to
uncover new mechanisms of gene silencing, and to use this fundamentally new way to
treat diseases by addressing molecular targets otherwise difficult to reach with existing
medicines.
