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A comment on Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' breakthrough. Parent comment

Re:Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' break... by moe on Tuesday June 02, 2015 @08:14AM (#9645309)
Could you give a brief explanation (in layman's terms) of why they are so difficult/expensive to make?

Wikipedia[1] is full of jargon, but one caption says "Monoclonal antibodies can be grown in unlimited quantities in the bottles shown in this picture". So the process at least looks scalable. What materials/constraints can possibly cost $25k per dose?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibody#Production

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Re:Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' break... by calinet6 on Tuesday June 02, 2015 @08:24AM (#9645354)
The images are full of fluff. The bottles are only one step in the process described in the section after that, which includes a dozen or so complex steps, each of which must be executed perfectly. Doesn't look simple.
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