European panel now recommends GTC anti-clotting drug’s surgical use
By Lisa Eckelbecker Jun 3, 2006
FRAMINGHAM— A European drug regulation committee reversed itself yesterday and recommended that a GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. anti-clotting drug drawn from the milk of genetically altered goats be approved for use in surgical patients.
…Regulators have been cautious about the use of animals to produce medicines, even as many researchers have devoted their careers to the field and companies have labored on limited funding to advance the technology, said Eric W. Overstrom, professor and head of the department of biology and biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
“The whole concept of a bioreactor, an animal-based bioreactor, this will really push that forward now,” Mr. Overstrom said. “If they’re the first ones in, then I think you’re going to see a rollout, a domino effect.”
News of GTC’s advance raised the price of at least one other transgenics company. Shares of Pharming Group NV of the Netherlands rose 15 percent, to 3.71 euros, in European trading.
GTC has long collaborated with corporate partners interested in exploring new production methods, such as Abbott Laboratories and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The company has also worked, with government backing, on a malaria vaccine that could be produced in goat milk.
Mr. Newberry of GTC said the European recommendation allows the company to look at a variety of new options. “Clearly, with this sort of validation, ‘Great science, but can you do anything with it?’ is a long way to being answered,” he said. <<
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