Another one :
31 Jan 2007
Kenya: Using animal clones to make SUPER drugs.
http://www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=14327
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
By Gatonye Gathura
No animal, except those accompanying the biblical Noah in the Ark, has ever generated as much buzz as Dolly the sheep - the first mammal to be cloned.
Named after singer Dolly Parton, the clone has since died. Its birth 10 years ago was the first step towards creating animals that manufacture designer medicines for human beings.
Last week, scientists at the organisation which made Dolly, the Roslyn Institute in Scotland, announced the creation of the world's first designer chicken that produces cancer drugs in its eggs.
These chicken are not the first modified animals to be turned into pharmaceutical factories. But they are significant because, unlike bigger mammals, they can multiply fast, hence produce more drugs.
However, it will take some time before one places an order for "well done" eggs that also treat cancer or malaria. This is because the medicinal components of "pharmed" egg or milk are not available to the body directly. They will be extracted, processed and packaged at a manufacturing plant.
The current production of genetically-engineered pharmaceutical products is too expensive and slow. Consequently, it is thought that "pharming" the drugs in animals could be faster and cheaper.
The second reason why "pharmed" cancer drugs from chicken are still several years away is because of stringent tests and registration procedures that they are expected to go through before they are made available to patients..
However, drugs processed from genetically engineered goats could be used by patients within the next five months.
Modified to include human genes
Last June, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) approved a drug produced by genetically modified goats.
The pioneering drug, an anti-clotting agent for people with a rare inherited disease, is made from the milk of goats whose DNA has been modified to incorporate human genes.
The drug, ATryn, sets a precedent for use of modified animal proteins. Despite protests from animal welfare campaigners, the technology is guaranteed to take off.
Another biotech company, Dutch firm Pharming, is close to bringing smart drugs into the market. Last month, it applied to the European Medicines Agency - the body that approved ATryn - for a second drug derived from transgenic animals.
Its drug, Rhucin, is intended to treat hereditary angioedema - characterised by painful and sometimes fatal swelling of soft tissues.
Like with other cutting edge technologies, Africa lacks the capacity to invest in this research. Yet investors in research and development (R&D) are unlikely to put their money in diseases which promise little returns.
Working on malaria vaccine
But Kenyans will be happy to hear that for more than eight years, scientists at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have been working on a malaria vaccine that could be mass produced in goat milk.
In a report published by the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences a few years ago, scientists developed mice that could secrete an experimental malaria vaccine into their milk.
When the purified, candidate vaccine was injected into monkeys, it protected four out of five of them from a lethal dose of malaria parasites. In comparison, six out of seven un-vaccinated animals had to be treated for virulent malaria.
"A vaccine must not only be effective, it must also be cheap to manufacture, particularly for poor countries. Using transgenic animals to achieve both ends is an exciting possibility. Several goats could produce enough vaccine for the whole of Africa," says lead researcher Anthony Stowers.
Preliminary experiments that have not been published suggest the procedure works well in larger animals such as goats and cows, offering hope to Kenya where malaria remains a major killer.
Casting the net much further, scientists have found that genetically modified plants can produce vaccines and drugs for human and animal illnesses, ranging from colon cancer to traveller's diarrhoea to tooth decay. This is called biopharming.
Technology developers believe that using foods to deliver vaccines could permit the latter to be consumed directly by humans or animals, eliminating the need for purification of the vaccine strain and the hazards associated with injections.
Plants used to develop vaccines include maize, spinach, tobacco, lettuce, tomato, soybeans and potatoes.
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