Antibodies are immunoproteins generated by animals as a response to injury, especially injury due to infectious agents. The immune system in humans is divided broadly into two areas: humoral immunity and cellular immunity. Antibodies fall in the first category and direct cell-mediated responses fall in the latter category. Rather than being passive binders to "foreign" antigens, antibodies also apparently actively destroy their targets by the local production of a superoxidant, possibly ozone.

In Cambridge, Georges Köhler and César Milstein produced monoclonal antibodies by fusing myeloma cells with antibody-producing lymphocytes during the mid-1970s. Monoclonal antibodies are useful in laboratory research, diagnostics and therapeutics

In late 1981, Cuba became interested in monoclonal antibodies (as did many other nations, including the USA) and the commercial potential of international sales of these products. Funding for great expansion of production of monoclonal antibodies resulted in the development and construction of the Molecular Immunology Center in 1994. Agustin Lage Davila, M.D. was named as its director. Today, Cuba sells monoclonal antibody products internationally.