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With genetically modified chickens, a new economical way to produce drugs to treat people with cancer or arthritis could be considered.
The researchers genetically modified the chickens to produce human proteins in their eggs with drugs 100 times cheaper to produce in this way.
The researchers found that chicken egg whites contained relatively large amounts of IFNalpha2a, potent antiviral and anticancer, and macrophage-CSF, currently being developed to stimulate repair of damaged tissue.
Three eggs are enough to produce a dose of the drug. With hens laying 300 eggs a year, researchers believe they can produce drugs in commercial quantities.
The development of drugs approved for human consumption will take between 10 and 10 years, and researchers hope to use the eggs to treat animals at first.
Dr. Lissa Herron, of Roslin Technologies in Edinburgh, Scotland, told the BBC that chickens do not suffer and are "pampered" by farm animals.
"They live in very large pens, they are fed, watered and cared for every day by highly qualified technicians and lead a rather comfortable life," she said.
"As far as the hen knows, he's just laying a normal egg, it does not hurt his health, he's just eclipsing it, laying eggs as usual."
The cost of producing the drugs was reduced because Dr. Herron and his colleagues inserted a human gene into the DNA of the chickens involved in the production of white in eggs.
Previously, scientists have proved that the milk or eggs of goats, rabbits and genetically modified chickens can be used to produce protein therapies.
Diseases where the body does not produce enough of a certain chemical or protein substance can be controlled with the help of drugs that these chickens have laid.
"Production from chickens can be 10 to 100 times cheaper than factories, so we hope our overall manufacturing costs will be at least 10 times lower," said Dr. Herron.
There is also a huge economy to have hen houses rather than sterile clean rooms in factories where drugs are produced.
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