The advantages of pharming lie mainly in its health and economic benefits. Through a cheaper and faster way, Pharming allows for the elimination of expensive laboratory infrastructure and equipment, reducing the costs of researching and manufacturing which is by far the biggest cost when it comes to producing new pharmaceutics. The cut in production costs mean that the cost of the medicine itself will become cheaper and more affordable.
Although
producing a transgenic animal can be expensive during the earlier stages of
development, the economic benefits it can provide once fully producing its
specific drug can be considered a good investment. Once the transgenic animal
is able to start producing pharmaceutics, the amount of drugs it is able to
produce at greatly reduced costs gives it a huge benefit over the traditional
method of using expensive machinery.
As a
result, the reduced costs in the manufacturing of drugs in transgenic animals
allow the huge global demand for pharmaceuticals to be matched. By making these
low cost medicines available at a more affordable price, people who could not
afford it in the past would have the opportunity to purchase the medicine they
need. For example, biopharming can produce drugs at $1-$2 a gram compared to
$150 a gram from a bioreactor – a huge difference in price reduction
(economist). Furthermore, mass production at reduced costs can support the
dozens of foreign aid and voluntary health care organizations in providing them
with more medicine to reach out to more people in need. Doctors without
Borders, an organization designed to provide healthcare to the outspread parts
of the world utilizes 86.3% of all donations directly towards the cost of its
programs. Allowing organizations such as these to acquire medicine at a reduced
cost will greatly increase their efforts benefiting those in underdeveloped
countries.
Biopharming
can also open up jobs and opportunities by creating a new industry, benefiting
not only the economy but also the chance for new revolutionary methods to be
discovered. Pharming utilizes new biotechnologies which are still undergoing
research and development, increasing the demand for experts in all sorts of
areas. Scientists, chemists, engineers, and medical researchers are just a few
to name who will all be required in this new industry.
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