ABSTRACT
Since conceived by Paul Ehrlich at the turn of the century, for the potential applications in chemotherapy, antibodies have been dubbed as magic bullets due to their high specificity and affinity towards pathogenic antigens. However, the therapeutic applications of antibodies became realistic only after the introduction of monoclonal antibodies and the advances of biotechnology in recent years. Several antibodies have already been produced and marketed by pharmaceutical companies as therapeutic drugs for the treatment of human diseases. It can be anticipated that more antibodies, particularly genetically engineered antibodies or antibody derivatives, will be introduced as new drugs in the next few years.
