We have chickens for eggs, cows for milk, but goats for...drugs?
On February 6th, the F.D.A. approved of the use of a drug derived from genetically-engineered goat milk, marking the first of its kind. A company called GTC Biotherapeutics engineered goats by inserting a gene into their genomes that produces antithrombin, a blood thinner protein. The breed of 200 closely monitored goats (which also was approved by the F.D.A) have been bred for this sole reason, to create this protein. Conventional methods of getting antithrombin include plasma donations or from vats of engineered cells, but neither has the efficicacy of this new method, especially due to the shortage of plasma and the outrageous costs of cell methods. The breed can also be expanded to fulfill need.
Deriving drug components from animals is not new, but creating "pharm" animals as they're dubbed soley for that purpose is unexplored. Animal rights activitsts are predictably up in arms over this new development, citing the exploitation of the animals as merely tools. There are also concerns about these goats or their milk inadvertently entering the food supply, or reproducing with the wildlife; the company assures that this won't happen, but they're safe to eat anyway.
I feel this is a great step forward in pharmaceuticals that shouldn't be hampered by weak ethical misgivings. We already "exploit" animals in the sense that we breed them to eat them or their animal products, and I find this no different; cows are bred to make milk for us to drink, and these goats are bred to make milk for us to make drugs out of. The human race has been doing this since the beginning of time, now we're just altering the product. In fact, I feel like animals such as research mice, which are doomed to have crippling genetic disorders or be cut up, have it worse than these goats; the quality of the product is dependent on the well being of the animal, so I'm sure they'll be treated well. Genetic engineering by itself isn't anything new either and is a generally accepted facet of biomedical research, so there's really no reason why this shouldn't be OK. I expect to see more developments in the future derived from this new method.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/business/07goatdrug.html?ref=research
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Jeff, I also feel that this innovation is a positive step in pharmaceuticals. The article states that producing drugs using “pharm animals” would be both cheaper and more efficient, lowering prices for the consumer and allowing greater access. I would like to know the reason why they would use goat milk as the medium versus any other milk, but that point is redundant. This is wonderful news for anyone that suffers from the blood clot condition listed in the article.
I don’t understand why anyone would object to this. The concerns over the animal’s health and quality control issues are definitely areas to worry about, but they are not anything that couldn’t be regulated and addressed. The notion that such animals represent a threat to the worldwide gene pool is absurd, seeing how they are the private property of various pharmaceutical companies. To lose one animal would be to lose millions, and no company would blissfully allow this to happen. There would be stringent guidelines and redundant controls preventing this from happening. I feel that your argument regarding the well being of these animals also hit the spot: farm animals are already exploited for a number of things. In fact, they were created and bred to be exploited; otherwise they would never have survived. All those other organizations that think otherwise are deluding themselves.
This news also has me eagerly anticipating the new developments that this promising field will bring to the pharmaceutical world.
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