Drug Companies And Doctors Battle Over The Future Of Fecal Transplants
The battle, pitting drug companies against doctors and patient advocates, is being fought over the unlikeliest of substances: human excrement. The therapy transfers fecal matter from healthy donors into the bowels of ailing patients, restoring the beneficial works of the community of gut microbes that have been decimated by antibiotics. At the heart of the controversy is a question of classification: Are the fecal microbiota that cure C. diff a drug, or are they more akin to organs, tissues and blood products that are transferred from the healthy to treat the sick?
Source: www.nytimes.com