Genetically modified chickens , which can make a drug in their eggs , have been approvedby the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) . The drug in question , visit Kanuma , will be used to treat a rare disease of humans that often proves fateful for babe . The chickens , which themselves are technically classified as “ animal drug ” by the FDA , will not be used for human using up , and will be bred and kept in a laboratory .
Lysosomal Lucy in the sky with diamonds lipase ( LAL ) deficiency is arare genetic diseasein which the body does not bring forth enough of the LAL enzyme . This think of that the body can not recrudesce down fat person textile , which then work up up in the liver , spleen , and vasculature . It come in two dissimilar variant , with the first affecting baby , unremarkably around two to four months of age . know as Wolman disease , it is quickly progressive and is often chop-chop black . The 2d soma , bang as cholesteryl ester storage disease ( CESD ) , is later in oncoming , normally occurring in other childhood but also in adults . reckon on the severity of the CESD , this grade can be make out .
presently , treatment for the disease targets the symptoms , not the campaign . This is where the transgenic chickens amount in . They have been genetically modified to produce egg in which the white dowry contains a form of the human LAL enzyme . The pharmaceutical company can then take the white and refine it to get the enzyme , have a go at it commercially as the drug Kanuma , and then employ this to process those stand from LAL deficiency , before the fat can build up and cause complication .
“ LAL want is a rare inherit genetic disorder that can conduce to serious and sprightliness - threatening electric organ terms , especially when oncoming start in infancy , ” explains Janet Woodcock , the Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research , in astatement . “ Using this applied science , these patient role for the first sentence ever have admittance to a discourse that may ameliorate their lives and fortune of selection . ”
Now that the volaille have been approved by the FDA , theyjoin only a handfulof other animal , known by some as “ farmaceuticals . ” Already on the U.S. market are GM butt , which produce an anticoagulant medication in their milk , and a drug produce in rabbits , which is used to treat angioedema – the rapid swelling of skin on the case and in the lip . Although none of these animals are on the public market for using up and are confined to science laboratory , this year also see the historic favourable reception by the FDA ofgenetically alter salmonfor food .
Interestingly , the GM chickens were fast - tracked through the approval process , and some think that this could open up the means for more transgenic animate being that produce drug to hit the market , proving that the goat and rabbit were not simply a one off .
