European scientists expect to begin human trials using pharmaceuticals grown in GM plants within the next five years. The European Union has awarded €12 million to a network of scientists in 11 European countries and South Africa and the aim is to use plants to produce vaccines and treatments against major diseases including AIDS, rabies, diabetes and TB.
This unique consortium, known as Pharma-Planta, will develop the concept from plant modification through to clinical trials. Using this joined up approach all the implications of using GM plants to create pharmaceuticals will be explored, with particular emphasis given to human and environmental safety.
The administrative co-ordinator of the project, Professor Rainer Fischer (Fraunhofer IME, Aachen, Germany) said ‘While the production of pharmaceuticals in other genetically modified systems is well-established and documented, there are no precedents for the same production process in plants. The duration of this project is 5 years and although the challenges ahead may appear formidable, in this time we hope to have products in clinical trials."
The focus in this project is to provide medicines for some of mankind’s most devastating diseases. A similar approach is already being used successfully in Cuba to create antibodies which allow the purification of Hepatitis B vaccine. The Pharma-Planta project aims to take the concept one step further and produce the vaccine or the therapeutic itself in plants.