Peptide drugs are developed from endogenous or synthetic peptides with
specific biological activities. They have advantages of strong target
specificity, high efficacy and low toxicity, thus showing great promise
in the treatment of many diseases such as cancer, infections and
diabetes. Although an increasing number of peptide drugs have entered
market in recent years, the preparation of peptide drug substances is
yet a bottleneck problem for their industrial production. Comparing to
the chemical synthesis method, peptide biosynthesis has advantages of
simple synthesis, low cost, and low contamination. Therefore, the
biosynthesis technology of peptide drugs has been widely used for
manufacturing. Herein, we reviewed the development of peptide drugs and
recent advances in peptide biosynthesis technology, in order to shed a
light to the prospect of industrial production of peptide drugs based on
biosynthesis technology.