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transcript
by: bio_curious (28/VA) 02/20/06 07:42 pm
Msg: 27295 of 27296
Please excuse the poor punctuation.
HOST OF CBS NEWS: Blood clots propose a life threatening danger to people with certain blood disorders, but there is a new drug being developed that if approved by the government could substantially reduce that danger.
What’s its all about? Well, it’s all about the goats. Here’s Trish Regan.
TRISH:
They may look and sound like regular goats, but unlike those created entirely by Mother Nature, these animals were injected with a single strand of human DNA that enables them to produce a critical human protein in their milk that can save lives.
HARRY: If you didn’t have this and your body was under stress, then your blood would start clotting. (during this is the only time the company name appears)
TRISH: The transgenic goats were genetically engineered by scientist Harry Meade, who now has 40 of these animals producing what he hopes will soon be the scientific equivalent of gold, antithrombin, an anti-clotting agent used to treat people with serious blood disorders.
HARRY: My dad would always say, “Well if you want to help farmers, why don’t you make milk worth something?”
TRISH: Until now genetically-developed antithrombin, made from part goat and part human and known as ATryn, has only been used in clinical studies, but European regulators will soon decide whether it will become the first drug of its kind available to any patient who needs it. (large ATryn graphic on screen for this sentence)
Lee Logan, who relies on the blood thinner Coumadin to prevent life-threatening blood clots, is hopeful FDA regulators here in the U.S. will eventually approve ATryn. When she became pregnant, she was forced to make a choice.
LEE: Either terminate the pregnancy or stop taking Coumadin and cross my fingers.
TRISH: She went off the medication and her clotting worsened. So she first turned to conventional antithrombin, made from human blood, but it’s scarce and sure enough her supply ran out. She was given one time special permission by the FDA to use ATryn and gave birth to a healthy boy.
LEE: Almost Milo (picture of young boy throwing ball to Lee)
It’s just a miracle. It doesn’t carry the risks associated with a human product. The applications are huge.
TRISH: But Kansas Senator, Sam Brownback, the leading conservative who has come out against certain types of genetic engineering such as cloning, said that while he supports the technology behind ATryn he worries about mixing human tissue with animal tissue and where that might lead.
SAM: My biggest fear is that we will alter the human species for all future generations without having discussed it.
TRISH: Still researchers like Meade believe they have a responsibility to let the science, not Congress, set the limits.
HARRY: If you have a technology that you think can help people, I think you owe society to use that technology.
TRISH: So while Meade waits for a decision from Europe, he’ll continue his quest to save lives. Trish Regan, CBS News, Framingham Massachusetts.