Cloning Around
An FDA ruling could spur growth at a Texas company that has the leg up on duplicating animals
At a ranch in Texas run by a biotechnology company, a dozen brown-and-white long-horn calves frolic in a fenced-off plot dotted with yellow wildflowers. The playful 2-week-old babies nudge one another and run together. If the calves seem unusually close, it's because they are. All clones of one show-champion longhorn, they share the exact same DNA but were borne by 12 different surrogate cows.
With a preliminary Food and Drug Administration ruling last week that it's safe to consume the meat or milk of cattle, pig, and goat clones, Austin-based ViaGen's three ranches could become home to many more cloned calves. Since 2003, at the FDA's request, ViaGen has voluntarily held off on selling clones to breeders anxious to duplicate their prized livestock. But with the FDA's finding that "meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," companies like ViaGen have cleared the first hurdle in making cloning technology more common among livestock farmers.
No rush. Supermarket shoppers won't find cloned meat in refrigerated bins anytime soon. First, companies will have to wait for a 90-day FDA public comment period to pass before proceeding further. And with many breeders cautious and consumers wary, even the final report won't immediately open the floodgates to commercial clones.
ViaGen, which sells cloned cows, pigs, and horses, is one of a handful of cloning companies that have survived the wait for the technology to become commercially viable. Because it got started early with a license from Scotland's Roslin Institute, known for cloning Dolly the sheep in 1996, ViaGen is the company with the most riding on final FDA approval, says Val Giddings, president of biotech consulting firm PrometheusAB. Two other cloning firms aren't as far along: Livestock cloning is a small piece of the business of Trans Ova Genetics, based in Sioux Center, Iowa; Cyagra of Elizabethtown, Pa., clones only cattle and has been limited by the need to raise outside funds.
Privately held ViaGen, started in 2001 and backed in part by billionaire investor John Sperling, hasn't had the money troubles that have plagued rivals. The octogenarian Sperling founded the for-profit University of Phoenix in 1976. For almost 10 years, he has doled out money to a number of projects, including a failed attempt to clone his dog Missy.
ViaGen has kept money trickling in by developing side businesses. It clones show animals such as horses at the cost of about $150,000 or competition cattle at $15,000 a head. ViaGen cloned 67 animals in 2006, says President Mark Walton. And the company developed AnguSure, a genetic test for Angus beef, and stores the DNA of nonprimate mammals, including cats and dogs. In 2006, ViaGen's sales hit $2.2 million, according to Dun & Bradstreet. Walton estimates, though, that ViaGen won't start making a profit for three more years.
The trick now will be to lower the cost of cloning, making it affordable to cow and pig farmers, while gearing up for the demand that may follow. "This won't happen overnight," says Walton. He expects to clone about 200 animals in 2007 and up to 800 the following year.
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