EDQM On Air, the podcast on public health brought to you by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) of the Council of Europe, has just released a new episode!
Biological medicinal products - or biologicals - are a class of pharmaceutical products derived or refined from biological sources including micro-organisms, animal tissue and even human cells. These extremely powerful and versatile medicines are at the cutting-edge of pharmaceutical science and have contributed to major breakthroughs in the treatment of smallpox, diabetes and haemophilia, as well as to promising innovations such as CRISPR-Cas9 technology and CAR T-cell therapies, making us stronger in the fight against disease.
But how did we get to this point? What were the first biologicals, and how have they evolved over time? What safety concerns arise from their use? In this episode, Emmanuelle Charton from the EDQM's European Pharmacopoeia Department walks us through the history of biologicals, from the first vaccines to the latest Nobel Prize-winning innovations.
