Imagine you could get life-saving medicines from milking a common farmyard animal. That idea moves a step closer to becoming a reality this week, as the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) considers the final stages of an application to licence a natural human protein extracted from the milk of goats.

If the EMEA says “yes” on Thursday, Atryn will become the world’s first medicine to be produced from a genetically modified animal and represents the vanguard of this long-promised science.

GTC’s Atryn goats are not alone in this novel science. Mixed in with the company’s 1,500 strong herd are goats producing a treatment to shrink solid tumours.

Down the road in Wisconsin, Dutch firm Pharming keep a herd of cows expressing human lactoferrin – a protein found in breast milk which has anti-bacterial qualities.

Three and a half thousand miles away on home turf in the Netherlands, Pharming are milking rabbits for a treatment for hereditary angioedema, which leads to swelling in various parts of the body.

I dearly hope we can stave off the Luddites.