Dutch Drug Company Reports Pregnancy Via Genetic Engineering

Belgian scientists have achieved the world’s first human pregnancy using a genetically engineered hormone to stimulate ovulation, the Dutch drug company that developed the hormone said Friday.

Organon International BV said the announcement of the successful test-tube pregnancy of a 29-year-old Belgian woman after injections of a gene-spliced follicle-stimulating hormone will be published in today’s edition of The Lancet. The woman and her 31-year-old husband had been infertile since 1984.

The new hormone offers an alternative to current methods of stimulating ovulation with hormones, known as gonadotropins, recovered from human urine.

Organon, a unit of the Dutch chemicals concern Akzo NV, said it would be a few years before the new product is marketed.