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Impact of Aptamers & Issues

Economic Impact $

The effectiveness of aptamers, coupled with low manufacturing costs, can bring critical treatment for devastating diseases like HIV/AIDS to even the poorest countries. Along with the many other applications aptamers can be developed for, these nucleic acids have the potential to change the world by providing more efficient and effective cures for a variety of diseases - preventing deaths and  societal damage.



Aptamers can also be developed faster then antibodies, and therefore cures for diseases can be distributed and implemented faster.



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Aptamers have a profound economic impact by providing a more cost-effective treatment method, as directly contrasted with  antibodies. Manufacturing costs of Monoclonal Antibodies are 7 times as much as corresponding  aptamer costs. This economic impact affects the medical industry as a whole: companies can sell 

Social Impact 

" The global market for aptamers was valued at $10 million in 2009, this further increased to $236 million in 2010.  Growing at...67.5%, this market is expected to be valued at nearly $1.8 billion by 2014 "

for less, resulting in reduction of costs across the industry in a ripple effect. The amount of money that can be saved by the health care system is incalculable.



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Issues

There are several issues associated with aptamers.



Although no longer as relevant, patents on the SELEX technology limited aptamer development for several years - these have since expired since the late 2000s.



Aptamer-based drugs may possibly require a significant financial investment to develop, for even though production is cheaper and easier then mAb production, developing operational aptamers may take additional, unforeseen time. This is because aptamers have not been studied as much as mAbs, and the development path for aptamers is still relatively unexplored. There may be technical difficulties in an aptamer-based drug development.



There is also issues of education and tradition that are barriers against aptamers; scientists are reluctant to turn away from an established method such as Monoclonal Antibodies for a potentially risky endeavor in aptamers. Aptamers are excluded from educational curricula as well, and only a determined scientist is educated on the topic.



"More fundamentally, though, neither anatomic nor clinical pathology training curricula include any dedicated effort to teach residents about aptamers, so only pathologists who have made a concerted individual effort to learn about aptamers would be expected to know they even exist. My personal impression, based on giving talks on aptamers around the country, is that only a minority of pathologists have ever heard of aptamers, and an even smaller minority could satisfactorily explain what one is, how it could be made, or how it could be used."Geoffrey S. Baird, Ph.D., MD



The commercialized aptamer market has also focused on diagnostic-based aptamer products, as they are easier and more reliably developed then drugs. It could possibly be some time until an aptamer focused company has the resources and investors to embark on the drug development path.



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