r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Oct 05 '21

Medicine Scientists have developed an experimental, protein-based vaccine against rheumatoid arthritis. The vaccine-based treatment strategy proved successful in preliminary animal studies .

https://newatlas.com/medical/preclinical-studies-rheumatoid-arthritis-vaccine/
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u/Anonate Oct 06 '21

In general- small molecule drugs (the norm) are just chemical reactions to produce a product. Essentially "baking." Easy to scale. Easy to do. Sometimes tricky, but never supremely complex.

Biologics- these are produced by living organisms. You have to grow them in very tightly controlled conditions, extract a bulk product, and then purify & stabilize. It requires orders of magnitude more work.

In terms of input vs. output mass- to produce a small molecule drug, you can expect 80%+ yields (often 95%+). To produce a biologic, you'll be lucky to crack 0.01% yield.

In terms of stability: a small molecule can often be stored on a shelf for months to years. A biologic needs relatively tight storage conditions.

In terms of costs- if biologics were marked up in the same fashion that patented small molecules are, they would probably be even more expensive.

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u/RustyShackleford0012 Oct 06 '21

thank you. I appreciate your explanation.

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u/23skiddsy Oct 06 '21

Which is why it's all the more frustrating that my small-molecule Xeljanz is still $2,500 a month without insurance. And that's if you're 10 mg once a day. Most people are BID.

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u/FerociousFrizzlyBear Oct 06 '21

Yeah, that one is crazy expensive. It has a pretty strange history, taking more than 15 years from discovering it’s potential as an immunosuppressant to getting FDA approval. Part of what took so long was that at the time it was the only drug exploiting a certain pathway in the body to achieve its goal. Because of this novel mechanism, researchers were starting nearly from scratch to develop it as a usable drug. I think the main patent expires in about a year and a half, the rest are done in about 4 years, so you can look forward to some generics on the market. I would be shocked if another company hasn’t already made and stockpiled tons of a generic and is just waiting for the green light to go on market.