Got (extra) milk? At the U, it's a warm commodity (Star Tribune)

Some Minnesota moms' breast milk is going to a for-profit California company, which modifies it and sells it to hospitals. But skeptics wonder if the company's high-tech treatment of the milk --and its high prices -- are necessary.

When it comes to feeding newborns, experts agree, there's nothing like mother's milk. But now, a Minneapolis hospital has teamed up with a California biotech company to try to improve on Mother Nature.
The University of Minnesota Medical Center is collecting the "raw material" -- breast milk -- from nursing mothers who are willing to donate what they don't need.

Then it's shipped to Prolacta Bioscience of Monrovia, Calif., where it's modified and sold back to hospitals for $26 to $43 an ounce.



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