The Production and Uses of Monoclonal Antibody Vaccines

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) offer a number of ways of arriving at one of the primary goals of those who hold that the way ahead for vaccine development is the administration of a product which is completely defined in molecular terms. It must be said that most, if not all, of the vaccines which are currently licensed for use in man or his animals contain many thousands of different molecular species. It may be thought that the recently licensed Hepatitis B vaccine made from a genetically engineered yeast cell, which produces a version of the glycosylated surface antigen of the infectious virus, is a vaccine which is as pure as is possible under the modern conditions of concentration and purification. Yet even if the purity of this material were to be quoted at 99% or thereabouts, there is much room for the existence of many different molecular species in such a highly purified material.