The science of Pharming requires a complex scientific foundation and only companies well established in the fields of pharmaceutical production will have the capabilities of utilizing such science. Due to the sheer economic benefits and higher capabilities for efficiency that the science of pharming will bring to the industry, large pharmaceutical companies will benefit even more from the benefits while smaller companies which lack the capabilities of utilizing the science will dwindle. “Pricing is unrelated either to the cost of production but a simple calculation of how to maximise revenue” (Gray 2013)
Since the pharmaceutical industry is subject to free enterprise and not controlled by the government the ultimate goals of companies will be to profit, thus contrary to cheaper production costs the emerging science of pharming will likely strengthen the hegemony of certain companies in the fields of pharmaceutical. The market demand for pharmaceutics is rising at an annual rate of 13% each year alone in the US (CSIA 2004), this violent surge of demand will further nourish the monopoly of large pharmaceutical companies, which is estimated to be worth $100 billion globally by 2020. (CSIA 2004)
Disadvantages of pharming.
This may make vital medicines even less accessible to those who most desperately need it. A When two competing companies are competing for the market and one begins to fully utilize the technology of pharming , that company will emerge with an iron grip on the industry. Only if both companies develop the technology simultaneously will the consumer benefit. Furthermore this may prove devastating when the single largest company incur a difficulty in production as this will completely disrupt the supply chain as opposed to when multiple companies make up the supply. Ultimately the prospect of pharming may seem like a tangible short-term solution for our rapidly growing demand of pharmaceutical, in the long term this technology will be exploited by capital greed.
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monopoly of large pharmaceutical companies
Pharming is a relatively new technology which has not yet matured fully and which we do not yet completely understand. Although the short-term prospects of pharming may seem advantageous for the industry we can have no idea of its long term implications. The lack of knowledge regarding potential future consequences may lead to foreboding implications. Even if extensive experimentations are conducted prior to the utilization of the technology, these experiments can only reveal the short-term consequences associated with pharming. The lack of long-term understanding is only deteriorating by a further lack of government regulations surrounding the subject.
Lack of long run understanding
“No specific legislation had been enacted to direct federal oversight of transgenic Animals” (CEI 1999) this lack of regulations blurs the boundaries of the industry and technology. Without proper regulations there is basically no strict control over the boundaries of the industry and may prove dire for the consumer. Due to the lack of maturity surrounding the subject people will remain doubtful over the potential safety of the technology. Many drug regulatory departments such as the Food and Drug Administration in the United States still remain vague over their regulations towards the technology. Guidelines are not yet established for their experimentation, production and distribution (Newton, 2007). Without proper regulation the consumer has no guarantee over the technology which still sits on the vague line between food and traditional medicine. (CEI 1999)
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A major concern over activist groups is the ethnical implications of pharming and the treatment of GMO animals as a means of production. The chief ethnical concern stems from society’s moral standpoint on using animals as a means to produce untested drugs and pharmaceuticals. Through using animals as organic bioreactors the moral dilemma here is whether we are treating animals as living creatures providing us with a service or merely seeing them as a medium of production whose life and treatment is second to the pharmaceutical value it may produce. The principal concerns of activists are how large pharmaceutical corporations, whose chief goal is profit, will treat and experiment with their animal subjects. Due to the relatively new field of science there is not yet any defining regulations regarding the treatment of animals as animals for the purpose of pharming falls under a unique category. With the emergence of the technology of pharming “APHIS will encounter new questions concerning animal health and disease control.” (APHIS 1999)