From Beans to Genes: "Pharming" for America's Newest Cash Crop

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In what once would have seemed like a fantastic scene from a science fiction story, increasing numbers of biopharmaceutical manufacturers are turning to mother nature to "grow" their products. Called "pharming" by industry insiders, these new facilities are popping up across the country. A number of companies have devised various methods of manipulating plants to produce therapeutic proteins for use in drugs for a wide range of applications, including cancer therapies and vaccines for everything ranging from e.coli to hepatitis B. Local farmers are often enlisted to grow these new crops prior to processing.

"Tobacco, corn, potatoes, you name virtually any plant and it is being investigated as the platform for over an estimated 500 protein-based drugs in development. Unlike the uproar over genetically modified plants for food, there seems to be a genuine fascination with this process to obtain drugs, " notes Annette Kreuger, Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry Manager for Industrialinfo.com. "Researchers have found ways to tweak the DNA in plants to produce the much-desired proteins. Various bio-production methods to produce the desired drug are employed after the proteins are harvested. An attractive bonus in producing proteins via plants is the fact that there are no known plant viruses that can be passed on to humans."

CropTech Incorporated (Blacksburg, Virginia) is one such "pharmer" about to set up shop in South Carolina. Strong incentives offered by the state helped sway the decision to locate their new facility near Charleston. At a cost of over $40 million for the new complex, the company hopes to eventually produce 600 Kg of recombinant protein from their transgenic tobacco system. Large Scale Biology Corporation (Vacaville, California) (NasdaqNM: LSBC), which is considered one of the founders of the "pharming" industry, currently contracts with area tobacco farmers to grow their product before transferring it to their main bioprocessing plant in Owensboro, Kentucky. As funding improves, they have plans to construct a much larger multi-million dollar facility in the same area.