BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Cloning provides scale-up power

May 3, 1999 7:00 AM UTC

Genzyme Transgenics Corp.'s cloning of three female goats that produce human antithrombin III in their milk could allow the company to rapidly scale up commercial production of the protein. ATIII is in Phase III testing to improve patient response to heparin during coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and could be the first transgenically produced protein to reach the market (see chart below).

"The animals we're working with now were created by microinjection, and we have been planning for our launch herd by breeding these traditional animals," said Sandra Lehrman, president and CEO at GZTC (Framingham, Mass.). "The cloned animals allow us to show that by cloning we get the same pharmaceutical protein and thus we have the capacity to expand our herd as needed. Moving forward, we see this as very important as the new technology will apply to our follow-on projects as well."...