Genetically Engineered : Du Pont Will Market Patented Mice in 1989
Du Pont Co. announced Tuesday that it will begin selling genetically engineered mice early next year, a move that for the first time will bring to the commercial market higher life forms manipulated by the tools of biotechnology.
Dubbed “OncoMice” because they carry human-cancer genes, or oncogenes, the mice last spring became the first animals to be the subject of a U.S. patent. Du Pont says the primary market for the animals would likely be pharmaceutical companies and scientific laboratories, which might use the animals’ unique capability of mimicking human cancer to test a wide variety of potential treatments.
The initial market for the mice--which could sell for as much as $100 each--is likely to be small. But biotech experts said that if these animals provide a successful model for human cancer research, the practice could expand to include using animal models for studying everything from cardiovascular diseases to AIDS.
“There is a lot of excitement in the scientific community about transgenic animals like this,” said Mel Balk, director of research for Charles River Biotechnical Services, the mouse-breeding firm that will raise the mice for Du Pont.
While scientists welcomed the decision to begin marketing the mice, the move was greeted with dismay by environmentalists and animal-rights activists who have opposed the application of biotechnology to animals and the granting of patents for the products of transgenic research.
“Saying that an animal that is genetically engineered can be patented and sold is the official endorsement that animals are human creations, that they are simply commodities, and are not ours in trust,” said Michael Fox, vice president-bioethics for the Humane Society of America. “But in a profane world, what else can you expect, where nothing is sacred anymore except human ingenuity?”
At least two dozen other animal-patent applications have been made to the U.S. Patent Office, and a wide variety of genetically altered animals are under development for such purposes as improving strains of livestock and pharmaceutical research. Fox and others, however, have vowed to fight in the next Congress for a moratorium on animal patents and for legislation making it difficult for biotech firms to sell animals for research. Similar legislation died in the 100th Congress.
The strain of mice, which was developed at Harvard Unviersity by researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart, has had the “ras” oncogene, shown to be prevalent in a variety of human cancers, inserted into their genetic makeup. A tumor virus was inserted as well, making it almost certain that the animals will develop cancer within 90 days and die soon afterward.
The advantage of having genetically engineered mice born with a predisposition to cancer is that they develop the disease in much the same way that humans do--their own cells become cancerous. By contrast, traditional methods required injecting cancerous cells from other animals into a healthy mouse. Scientists could not be sure that the mouse’s body treated the foreign cells as it would its own.
No Threat to Humans
Researchers say the cancerous mice pose no threat to humans. Cancer is not transmitted by contact with those afflicted. Because the mice are genetic hybrids, they would be unlikely to pass on cancerous genes to healthy mice even if they came in contact with them.
Just how these three markets will translate into revenue for Du Pont is difficult to predict, industry sources said.
But even under the most favorable of scenarios, according to Donald Hudson, president of Transgenic Sciences Inc., another biotech firm in the field--the mice’s revenue potential is limited, unlikely to bring Du Pont any more than a few million dollars a year.
“They’ve probably poured millions of dollars into this,” Hudson said. “It might be difficult for them to get their money back.”
If the mice are effective models for scientists, however, there could be a big payoff in the development of genetically engineered animals for other diseases.
