Jan wrote,
"Yes, but it is my understanding that Prolacta has no intention of
payingdonors either.  That the mothers will DONATE all the 100,000,000 ounces
ofmilk they intend to process a year, and Prolacta will make something
like$60,000,000 within three years."

I believe that Jan is correct.  Prolacta Bioscience has the unusual
distinction of being a company that is not only for profit but also a
non-profit.  The only other company I am aware of that exists like this is
Family Health International which has the major share of contracts from the
various governments including the WHO on the hiv/aids studies.  While they
are non-profit when dealing with governmental bodies, they also have a
profit-making arm of the company that contracts with the pharmaceutical
industry. Makes one wonder about how one keeps the profit-making interest
separate from the non-profit.

Prolacta Bioscience will be extracting proteins from donated milk that will
go to the pharmaceutical industry. Those proteins will be used in the
treatment of immune-compromised individuals (including hiv/aids patients)
besides other treatments.  I assume the money will be made on this portion of
the industry not so much on the human milk in the can (pasteurized and
fortified).  One can wonder how much of the human milk is going into the can
since the important proteins are being extracted from that milk.  This
operation should not be called milk banking.  Its really about getting a
natural resource for free and making profits.   It is very ironic that you
have the intiation of an industry based in part on the fears of toxic human
milk (for example hiv/aids)--the reason for pasteurizing it. But one is
extracting the proteins out of it to treat the very same disease.  Maybe what
we are really dealing with is the belief that what comes from the body
(especially the breasts) is diseased/toxic (dirty) and what comes out of the
can is clean.  Although I think that a sterile/dead substance cannot enhance
immunity but I guess we can call it... nutrition?  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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