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[[Category:Technology]]
Living things can be turned into pharmaceutical
“bioreactors” by adding genes that code for commercially
useful proteins. Transgenic pharm bacteria and plants
are the simplest to create, but animals are often used to
manufacture complex products. The chief advantage
of animals is their ability to produce more than one
protein at a time. They are also easier to control than
plants (which are more likely to inadvertently hybridize
with other species) and do not require the complex processing
vats required by bacteria.

Pharm animals are designed so that products can be
extracted safely by tapping or harvesting blood, milk,
saliva, urine, eggs, or even cheese. While the gengineering
involved is intricate, the maintenance and processing
is low-tech, making pharm animals (especially fertile
ones) favorites for start-up colonies and developing
nations. Paralleling earlier struggles over genemod crops,
conflicts often arise between biotech companies who
wish to restrict their products’ ability to reproduce and
customers who want cheap, self-reproducing livestock.
Various restrictions are used, such as trademarks
embedded into the genetic code, sterilization,
or special hormones required before fertility. Similarly,
genehacked pharm animals without these
restraints sell well on the black market.

Simple pharm animals include cows that produce
additive-enhanced baby formula or vaccines, or
pigs with human hemoglobin in their blood (to serve
as blood substitute). Others possess internal symbiotic
microbes that let them produce ready-to-use
designer drugs, industrial proteins, or even explosives.
Pharm animals were extensively used by the
anti-government forces during the Andes War, where
genemod goats and llamas manufactured strategic products
such as combat drugs, medicines, bomb components,
and the spider silk used for arachnoweave armor. Pharm
animals used in space colonies often have pantropic modifications
to better adapt to extraterrestrial environments.

A variation on the pharm animal is the use of
implanted nanofactories to make particular chemicals.
Pharm humans are also possible, but rarely considered
ethical. A few exotic bioroids do have built-in drug
factories.