Seeking Alternatives to Animal-Derived Drugs
Apr. 1, 2008 by Lisa Currie
From the New York Times…
Chopped pig pancreas may not sound appetizing. But most cystic fibrosis patients eat a refined version of it each breakfast, lunch and dinner — five large capsules a meal — to supply enzymes their bodies do not produce.
The pills are life-sustaining for most of the nearly 30,000 people in the United States with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that attacks the lungs and digestive tract.
But partly because of the drug’s source there have been longstanding concerns about those capsules, according to Leslie Hendeles, a University of Florida professor of pharmacy and pediatrics who has studied them.
“What would happen if there were a virus, a pig virus, something analogous to mad cow disease?” Dr. Hendeles asked.
The recent recall of the Baxter International blood thinner heparin, which has been linked to 19 deaths and whose main ingredient comes from pig intestines, has raised public awareness that even in the age of sophisticated bioengineering, certain crucial medicines are still derived from animal parts. The concerns remain, even though, as it turned out, the heparin problem had nothing to do with the pigs.
A company called Scientific Protein Laboratories, which supplies the active ingredient in heparin to Baxter International, is also the supplier of much of the pig-derived pancreatic enzymes used by cystic fibrosis patients.
Medical and drug scientists have long worried about animal-derived drugs, but they also know that the search for synthetic alternatives has often ended in frustration.