Fwd: Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly / Animal Pharm Folds

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Mon, 28 Jul 2003 21:05:32 +0100

Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly / Animal Pharm Folds

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

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Biotech century ending?

******************

 

This miniseries charts the further collapse of the biotech empire, particular in

the supposedly ‘highly lucrative’ biomedical sector since the latter part of

2000. It is now desperately grasping for support from the taxpayer by hyping

genetics and bio-defence. Don’t be fooled.

 

Genetics & Bio-Defence Research Rescue Biotech Slump

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GBBBS.php "

 

Gene Therapy Risks Exposed

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GTRE.php "

 

Death Sentence on Cloning

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/DSFC.php "

 

Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/POTDC.php "

 

Animal Pharm Folds

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/APF.php "

 

Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly

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A damning report on xeno-transplantation buried by government officials,

according to The Observer

 

 

The Department of Health commissioned a report two years ago to explore the

legal and ethical implications of xenotransplantation, and to help formulate a

strategy for proceeding with the contentious technology.

 

The independent advisers from the University of Glasgow warn that

xenotransplantation might have to be abandoned in favour of other alternatives.

The report argues that not only has the Government ignored ethical and public

concerns over the technology, but that using it on patients could prove so

dangerous that the Government could face multi-million pound compensation

claims.

 

Professor Sheila McLean and Dr Laura Williamson from the University of Glasgow

spent 16 months putting together the 700-page document.

 

Its conclusions, leaked to The Observer at the end of June 2003, warn that the

NHS and companies involved would be liable for a huge lawsuit if new,

potentially lethal viruses emerge from the practice of putting pig cells and

organs into thehuman body. And if the disease - which some experts have warned

could create a new HIV-type virus - spreads across the world, the Government

could be sued for breaching international law.

Patients would also have to choose between death and agreeing to lifelong

monitoring and not to have unprotected sex or children, in case any disease

could be passed on to another generation.

 

To help facilitate the acceptance of xeno-transplantation, the Government

commissioned three reports into technology. Two of them - on the risk of disease

transmission and the practicalities of transplanting animal organs - have

already been published.

 

The authors of the final, most controversial document were stunned when they got

a letter from a senior government official dated 19 June - explaining it had

decided not to publish their work. It claims the findings in the report did not

meet the needs of the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority

(UKXIRA), which offers expert guidance to the Government on the issue, and

“lacked balance in some areas”.

 

The decision to suppress the report caused outrage among animal welfare groups,

which have expressed deep unease about the ethics of creating ‘organ farms’.

 

Co-author Williamson fears that failure to publish the report suggests that

UKXIRA will continue to give insufficient attention to the ethical questions

raised.

 

But it is the legal implications arising from the creation of new disease that

appears likely to prove most damaging to the future of xeno-transplantation.

 

Many experts have voiced concerns that putting pig cells and organs into the

human body could create new viruses. The pig genome contains many porcine

endogenous retroviruses that while dormant in the pig, could prove infectious

for human beings.

 

In fact, although xenotransplantation is banned in Britain and America, the

Government’s regulatory body is still accepting trial applications from

companies.

 

Hope was bolstered by the announcement by PPL Therapeutics - the company behind

Dolly the cloned sheep - that trials of animal-to human transplants could begin

within two years following the birth of cloned piglets genetically engineered so

their organs will not be immediately rejected by patients. But PPL has sold the

xenotransplantation business, and looks likely to close down after a series of

setbacks (see Animal pharm folds " http://www.i-sis.org.uk/APF.php " , this

series).

 

A Department of Health spokesperson explained that UKXIRA was considering

whether a further review may be necessary, which will also take into account

recent developments.

 

ISIS has issued a comprehensive report back in 2000, Xenotransplantation – how

bad science and big business put the world at risk from viral pandemics

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/xeno.php " and all its conclusions and warnings have

been confirmed.

 

Source:

******

 

“Doubts on pig organ transplants ignored” Mark Townsend,

The Observer, Sunday 29 June, 2003

 

 

______________________

 

Animal Pharm Folds

****************

The company that helped clone Dolly is fighting for survival, as one after

another of its technologies unravel. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho " m.w.ho "

reports.

 

PPL Therapeutics, the company that made its fortunes on Dolly the cloned sheep 6

year ago, announced on 18 June that its partner, the German drug giant Bayer,

has suspended development of recombinant alpha-1 anti-trypsin, a treatment for

emphysema. This was one of PPL’s main projects.

 

In response, PPL said it will lay off up to 140 of its 165 employees in both UK

and New Zealand and scrap plans for a £42 million manufacturing plant. The

company itself could fold, some analysts say.

 

When PPL was set up in 1989, the company hoped to clone flocks of genetically

modified sheep and cows that would produce therapeutic proteins in their milk.

But the firm has been forced to sell off several projects within the past few

years, including the somatic cell nuclear transplant cloning that produced

Dolly, as the technology has come up against insurmountable hurdles (see “Death

sentence on cloning”, this series " http://www.i-sis.org.uk/DSFC.php " ). It closed

down its stem-cell projects last September, and in April this year, sold off its

xenotransplantation arm (another technology that is biting the dust, see “Pig

organ transplants dangerous & costly”, this series

" http://www.i-sis.org.uk/POTDC.php " ). PPL’s share price, which exceeded £4 in

the mid 1990s, is now about 6 pence.

Geoff Cook, PPL’s chief executive, warned that shareholders may decide that

selling the company’s remaining assets is the best way to recoup their

investment.

 

Meanwhile mass slaughter has begun of up to 3 000 transgenic sheep at the

company’s two farms in East Lothian.The animals must be slaughtered and

incinerated on the same day under strict Home Officeregulations to avoid

environmental risks; and meat from the animals cannot be sold as food.

 

Sources:

*******

“Sheep fail to produce golden fleece”, Gretchen Vogel.

Science

 

2003, 300, 2015-6. “Dolly firm in trouble after transgenic milk fails to flow”,

Jenny Hogan,

Nature

 

2003, 423, 907.

“Dolly creators begin mass slaughter”

" http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=768342003 "

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=768342003

 

 

 

===================================================

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/POTDC.php and http://www.i-sis.org.uk/APF.php

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General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

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