It's curious, because in the near future monoclonal antibodies, as produced by your own body, should be the very cheapest 'drugs' (sic; read 'therapy' or 'cure') to make. If your own body is the manufacturing plant, it's just the cost of delivering the blueprints, once (very cheap).
You design the monoclonal antibody, figure out its sequence, deliver the sequence back into your own body (via some HIV-like virus), and now your body has an unlimited continuous access to the therapeutic.
Production of the therapeutic-delivering virus could be done in such a way as to produce a global scale for a small amount of money that would never need to be administered again. For example, in lab I can produce enough (lab quality) purified protein for a single one-time dose for a few thousand dollars and a week's work. On the other hand, I could produce enough therapeutic virus for dozens of people to forever produce their own versions of that same protein for a few hundreds dollars and an afternoon's work. This is very unlike any other 'drug' of the 20th century.
You design the monoclonal antibody, figure out its sequence, deliver the sequence back into your own body (via some HIV-like virus), and now your body has an unlimited continuous access to the therapeutic.
Production of the therapeutic-delivering virus could be done in such a way as to produce a global scale for a small amount of money that would never need to be administered again. For example, in lab I can produce enough (lab quality) purified protein for a single one-time dose for a few thousand dollars and a week's work. On the other hand, I could produce enough therapeutic virus for dozens of people to forever produce their own versions of that same protein for a few hundreds dollars and an afternoon's work. This is very unlike any other 'drug' of the 20th century.