You ole goat, you!

Wow, so much going on in our world, and so little time to research and read, however, this one is just amazing!

So you have a dire medical problem that requires medication to prevent clotting, an anti-clotting medication that is developed from genetically engineered goats.

FROM AP

Drug from genetically engineered goats a first
January 7th, 2009 By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR , Associated Press Writer in Medicine & Health / Medications

In what would be a scientific first, an anti-clotting drug made from the milk of genetically engineered goats moved closer to government approval Wednesday after experts at the Food and Drug Administration reported that the medication works and its safety is acceptable.

Called ATryn, the drug is intended to help people with a rare hereditary disorder that makes them vulnerable to life-threatening blood clots.

Its approval would be a major step toward new kinds of medications made not from chemicals, but from living organisms genetically manipulated by scientists. Similar drugs could be available in the next few years for a range of human ailments, including hemophilia.

ATryn was developed by a Massachusetts biotechnology company, GTC Biotherapeutics, by altering the genes of goats so they would produce milk rich in antithrombin, a protein that in humans acts as a natural blood thinner.

About 1 in 5,000 people don't produce enough of the protein, putting them at risk of developing blood clots in their veins. Such clots can be extremely painful. If they break loose and travel through the bloodstream to the lungs or the brain, the consequences can be catastrophic. Pregnant women with the disorder are at high risk of miscarriage or stillbirth, because of blood clots in the placenta.

In their everyday lives, patients with the disorder are managed with conventional blood thinners. That would not change. ATryn is for use only when patients are undergoing surgery or having a baby, times when the risk of dangerous clots is particularly high. Those patients would receive the drug by intravenous infusion for a limited time before and after their procedures.

Scientific advisers to the FDA will weigh the risks and benefits of the drug at a meeting Friday, and make a recommendation on approval. The FDA will make the final decision.

"It's the first time we've held an advisory committee meeting on any product from a genetically engineered animal," said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. If ATryn is approved, the FDA may require follow-up monitoring to make sure that patients' immune systems don't start making antibodies in reaction to the medication.

Well, you ole goats, something else to affect our immune system...geez...what will they think of next?

Genetically modified corn? Oh, we already have that don't we? Know what's in Canola oil? Perhaps we need to be more informed about what we are eating? Just think, and don't get me wrong, I love goat cheese, but I want to know just what goes from my fork to my mouth...and sets up some invading consequence in my body.

For the complete article...
http://www.physorg.com/news150563615.html