The progress made by medicine in the latest years has been truly fantastic, as new technologies and drugs emerged, new ways of conducting surgeries have become available, but some developments just have the ability to leave people in awe.
It seems that a genetically engineered goat which produces milk containing anti-clotting medicine is in the process of being approved by the FDA. A Food and Drug Administration evaluation released Wednesday found that the drug Atryn is effective and safe.
But as if one can imagine, there are a lot of people criticizing the whole thing, claiming that even though the drug is safe, the manufacturing process could be pretty dangerous.
Basically the goat is producing the medicine in its milk, and even though is sounds like a reasonable solution for a great supply of a certain medicine, prudence is needed as this is the first time such a thing is being attempted.
There are still more steps in the FDA's drug-approval process, and it is certain that the whole thing will be highly controversial. If the drug is approved, it would be the first application under new FDA regulations that allow animals to be genetically altered to produce drugs, and this is, indeed, a big step to be taken.
It just shows how far medicine and technology have arrived. Things are moving quite fast and this is a good thing as the faster new ways to cope with diseases are being created, the more people will benefit from them.