LONDON (AFX) - PPL Therapeutics PLC shares were sharply higher after it
announced it has successfully cloned a calf.
At 9:56 AM, PPL shares were up 12-1/2 pence at 192-1/2 after the company
said its U.S. operation had produced 'Mr Jefferson', a healthy 98-pound
Holstein.
Analysts said the birth of Mr Jefferson will help quell some
reservations in
the scientific community about the company's earlier success in cloning
sheep.
Other researchers have not been able to reproduce the success of PPL
and its
associated scientists at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, and some doubts had
been
raised about the veracity of the cloning claims.
PPL had produced Dolly, the first cloned sheep, and Polly, the first
cloned
transgenic sheep.
PPL specialises in the production of human proteins in the milk of
transgenic sheep -- animals which have had human DNA incorporated into their
DNA.
The company has said that cloning could represent a more cost-effective
way
of producing transgenic animals. Animals said cloned cows could provide
greater
production volume for the human proteins, which the company is developing for
the treatment of haemophilia and cystic fibrosis.
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