In this Aug. 14, 2014 photo, biotech greenhouse associate specialist Derek Haynes replaces tobacco plants in the greenhouse following examination at Medicago USA, Inc. in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Through its plant-based technology, the facility is capable of producing millions of doses of vaccines. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
EBOLA PUTS FOCUS ON DRUGS MADE IN TOBACCO PLANTS
By MALCOLM RITTER
— Aug. 15, 2014 10:22 AM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s an eye-catching angle in the story of an experimental treatment for Ebola: The drug comes from tobacco plants that were turned into living pharmaceutical factories.
Using plants this way — sometimes called “pharming” — can produce complex and valuable proteins for medicines. That approach, studied for about 20 years, hasn’t caught on widely in the pharmaceutical industry.
But some companies and academic labs are pursuing it to create medicines and vaccines against such targets as HIV, cancer, the deadly Marburg virus and norovirus, known for causing outbreaks of stomach bug on cruise ships, as well as Ebola.
While most of the work in this area uses a tobacco plant, it’s just a relative of the plant used to make cigarettes.
“It’s definitely not something you smoke,” said Jean-Luc Martre, a spokesman for Medicago, a Canadian company that’s testing flu vaccines made with tobacco plants.
Medicago has a new production facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Once approved by federal authorities, it’s expected to be able to make 30 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine a year, or 120 million vaccine doses to fight a major outbreak of “pandemic” flu if the government requests it.
https://bigstory.ap.org/article/ebola-puts-focus-drugs-made-tobacco-plants
