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Japanese, U.S. scientists develop BSE-resistant cow for medical use
TOKYO (AP)--Japanese and U.S. scientists have genetically engineered a bovine embryo that is resistant to the deadly bovine spongiform encephalopathy and they plan to breed several of the cows to use them to make medicines to treat human diseases, an official said May 31.
The embryo was implanted in a cow and is expected be born early next year, said Kumi Nakano, spokeswoman for Kirin Brewery, which diversified recently into pharmaceuticals and jointly conducted the research with U.S.-based biotechnology company Hematech.
The cows will not be bred to produce BSE-free meat. Instead, blood and milk extracted from them will be used in drugs to fight pneumonia, hepatitis C and rheumatic diseases such as arthritis, for the U.S. market by 2013, Nakano said.
While drugs can be safely produced from cattle infected with BSE, the companies decided to develop cows with immunity because consumers may believe that medicines made from extracts of the animals will be safer to use, Nakano said.
Nakano declined to specify sales targets. But she said the company expects the market for such drugs--estimated at 19 billion yen (US$173.5 million) in recent years--to grow in coming years.
The announcement follows a report by South Korean researchers in December describing their success at cloning calves resistant to the brain-wasting disease.
While teams in the United States and South Korea are racing to clone BSE-free cattle, breeding genetically engineered animals for meat is seen as too costly.
Date: 6/9/04
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