International Nonproprietary Names for monoclonal antibodies: IFPMA proposal

It should be emphasized that the additional explanations given in this paper do not necessarily represent a harmonized IFPMA position but reflect the personal views of the authors.* Molecular structure of antibodies -the immunoglobulin molecule Antibodies, also called immunoglobulins, are a large group of closely related glycoproteins with a molecular weight of up to 150 kDa. It consists of three structurally independent moieties connected by a flexible hinge region, which are termed F^sub ab^ (the antigenbinding fragments comprising one light chain and the V^sub H^ and C^sub H^1 parts of one heavy chain), responsible for antigen specificity and binding, and F^sub c^ ("fragment crystallizable", comprising the C^sub H^2 and C^sub H^3 parts of two heavy chains).