While the world is still roaring accolades for the genre of opening it delivered for Olympics, China has another achievement up its sleeves. Besides symbolizing a Chinese Zodiac Sign, it could be an epitome of Cancer Treatment in near future. Cracking effective and yet affordable treatments for Cancer has always posed a challenge for the world and China seems to have emerged as a successful player. It has bred a genetically altered cow capable of producing cancer fighting proteins for humans. CD20 antibodies are found in milk of such cows which can help achieve a breakthrough in combating this disease. The first cow was born in Beijing on Aug. 2 and a dozen more are due for next month. China believes in maximizing production to result in cost-optimization.
The same principle is applied here by means of mass breeding the animal which would enable China to deliver therapeutic proteins cheaply. It works by purifying the human monoclonal (produced from a single cell) antibodies from the milk of this transgenic cow and is used to treat B cell lymphomas and leukemias and some auto-immune diseases. The cow weighed as high as 38 kgs during birth and seemed healthy after 10 days of observation. The costs of CD20 antibody production are expected to slash down with this development. The functional drug is expected to be out in another 5 years.
