Abstract
During the last two decades the field of antibody-based therapeutics has seen major progress. The development of new technologies made possible the generation of human–mouse chimaeric or humanised monoclonal antibodies or even human monoclonal antibodies of minimal immunogenicity and greatly enhanced half-life, resulting in sustained drug action and permitting multiple administrations. At the same time, the development of new methods employed in the study of immune and inflammatory diseases has resulted in the identification of a whole new range of targets against which antibody-based therapeutics could be developed. In this article, review recent literature and patents for antibody-based therapeutics in immune and inflammatory diseases published over the last four years are reviewed.