Biologics

Biologics can be defined as medical products produced from living organisms or their components. The term "biologics" include a wide variety of medical products like vaccines and antitoxins while biologics drugs include a wide variety of products gotten from humans, animals or microorganisms by using biotechnology.

Biologics consist of natural materials like cells, proteins and tissues gotten from humans, animals or microorganisms. A lot of medical disciplines especially rheumatology and oncology have been greatly transformed because biologics has broken new grounds in offering treatments for previously untreatable conditions. Some experts even predict that half of the prescription drug market will will consist of biologics this year.

Regardless of revolution biologics has offered in the health sector, there still exist problems such as its high cost which is a pending pharmacoeconomic issue. This high cost is an issue because a lot of these drugs are used to treat chronic conditions and it takes a lot of years before cheaper versions of these drugs are released into the market. While conventional medicines have a maximum of five years exclusivity before the cheaper versions come out, these regulations don't exist for biologics. However, biotechnology companies are trying to reach an agreement on a twelve year period of exclusivity to guarantee a return on their investment.