Abstract

Once a rarely used subset of medical treatments, protein therapeutics have increased dramatically in number and frequency of use since the introduction of the first recombinant protein therapeutic — human insulin — 25 years ago. Protein therapeutics already have a significant role in almost every field of medicine, but this role is still only in its infancy. This article overviews some of the key characteristics of protein therapeutics, summarizes the more than 130 protein therapeutics used currently and suggests a new classification of these proteins according to their pharmacological action.

Author affiliations

1. Benjamin Leader is at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Brown Medical School, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02093, USA.
2. Quentin J. Baca and David E. Golan are at the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, 250 Longwood Avenue, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA, and Hematology Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

Correspondence to: David E. Golan² Email: dgolan@hms.harvard.edu

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