Pharmaceutical breakthrough may make a range of drugs cheaper and more available

A new study published in the February 2008 print edition of The FASEB Journal describes a scientific advance that should reduce the cost and increase the availability of a wide range of drugs. In the report, University of Pennsylvania researchers describe how they used gene therapy to reduce the time it takes to breed large animals capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as insulin or those that fight cancer. This represents a significant milestone in drug development, as current methods involve cloning, which takes more time and generally costs more.