MNA – Chairman of the Biotechnology Development Council said Wednesday that the country is planning to develop 30 new biopharmaceuticals in the future.

Mostafa Ghanei, Chairman of the Biotechnology Development Council, said biopharmaceuticals in Iran are developed by Iranian scientists and experts, voicing the Council’s support for the production of new medicine.

He maintained that there are currently 146 different types of biopharmaceuticals in the global market, adding that 20 types of them are available in the Iranian market.

Ghanei added that 4 of the biotech drugs available in the Iranian market are monoclonal antibodies – a type of protein made in the laboratory that can bind to substances in the body, including cancer cells, and the 16 others are recombinant products, which result from the use of DNA technology.

Biopharmaceuticals include vaccines, blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, tissues, and recombinant therapeutic protein. They are different from pharmaceuticals in that they are made from a living organism or its products and are used in the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer and other diseases.