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Why Make Pharmaceuticals in Plants?
Current production methods for biologics use cell culture systems
-- large fermentation vats containing broths of bacterial or animal
cells that produce the medical protein.  Commercial-scale
cell culture systems are expensive to build and maintain, and tend
to be inflexible to changing market needs. Such shortcomings have
inspired the pursuit of alternative methods for producing biologics,
with plants a natural choice.
Production cost and flexibility are the most compelling
advantages to producing plant-made pharmaceuticals. Plant biomass
-- the plant materials from which target proteins are extracted
-- is highly efficient and cost effective to produce. Moreover,
the costs involved in establishing a field of plants are significantly
smaller than those needed to build and maintain an indoor cell bio-reactor.
Plant-based systems can also be sensitive to market
needs for specific products. Current cell culture systems require
building new bio-reactor facilities to meet increased demand or
to switch production to a different drug, and they can’t always
produce enough of the protein that is needed for drug production.
Furthermore, cell culture systems are shut down when protein demand
declines.  Plant-based
production systems, on the other hand, can respond quickly to increased
demand by planting greater acreage of the biologic-producing crop;
acreage can be easily cut back when demand declines.
Viral screening and processes that prevent contamination
from human infectious agents are a significant expense in mammalian-based
bio-reactors as well. These expenditures would be reduced to near-zero
with bio-pharming systems because plants do not host mammalian viruses
or human pathogens.
The speed, efficiency, and flexibility plant-made
pharmaceuticals offer have provided a strong incentive for some
companies to invest millions of dollars in bio-pharming technology.
In addition, subsidized commodities, such as corn, could be used
for production, which would cut production costs as well as capital
investment in production infrastructure. Overall, new drugs could
be produced more rapidly.
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