How are biotech drugs currently manufactured?
Protein-based drugs developed through biotechnology are currently produced in sterile fermentation facilities, where micro-organisms or mammalian cell cultures in stainless steel tanks churn out a range of genetically engineered products (Felsot, 2002). Most human insulin, for example, is now produced in bacterial cultures. Because these fermentation facilities have huge capital construction costs, industry has been unable to keep up with the growing demand. For example, the biotech company Amgen is reportedly unable to meet demand for Enbrel, a protein-based arthritis medicine made in mammalian cell cultures (Alper, 2003). Some biopharmaceuticals are extracted from animal and human tissues (e.g., insulin from pig and cow pancreas, blood proteins from human blood (Freese, 2002)), a high-cost procedure that carries the risk of transmitting infectious diseases. Due to advances in plant genetic engineering over the past two decades, plants can now be modified to produce a wide range of th
