Truth about Trade and Technology, IA
02-06-07
Biopharming shifts its focus away from corn
by: Bill Hord
Lincoln - The opportunity to grow medicine in cornfields may have slipped away
from Nebraska and Iowa farmers for at least the time being.
The biopharming movement - the attempt to put genes into plants that will
reproduce into therapeutic drugs - continues to advance, but companies are
shying away from corn as a potential drug-making factory.
"I see it as a lost opportunity," said Aurora, Neb., farmer Richard Schaffert, who
was among the Midlands farmers in 2002 who planted test plots of corn for a
biopharming company called ProdiGene Inc. of College Station, Texas.
The crops-to-drugs industry suffered a major setback when gene-altered corn
plants from the previous year's ProdiGene tests emerged among soybeans
growing in the same fields.
The potential for contamination prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
destroy more than 500,000 bushels of soybeans from the Aurora (Neb.) Co-op
elevator. The Iowa problem was corrected before grain was delivered to an
elevator.
ProdiGene paid a $250,000 fine and millions of dollars in cleanup cost for failure
to comply with the USDA's requirement to keep test plot crops, even residue,
totally isolated from other crops.
The drain on resources halted the company's research a couple of years later.
"I think it is a shame what happened, and it put a damper on the whole process,"
said Tony Laos, former president of ProdiGene who now lives in Omaha. "I think
the science is still good."
Drug companies continue in their research of biopharming because of crops'
potential to rapidly reproduce gene-altered proteins. These designer proteins can
then be used as vaccines or treatments to modify abnormal proteins that cause
disease.
Crop-produced drugs, if they ever hit the market, could cut costs dramatically
over the current costs of laboratory produced drugs.
Progress has been made, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
In 2006, the USDA approved the first plant-made vaccine for animals. In the
same year, clinical trials showed that rice-produced protein contained qualities of
mother's milk that could resolve diarrhea problems in babies.
A Canadian company has identified a way to produce insulin from gene-altered
safflower plants. One acre of safflower could produce enough insulin to supply
2,500 patients a year, potentially alleviating a worldwide insulin shortage.
Other biopharming tests are seeking treatments for cystic fibrosis, cancer,
multiple sclerosis, AIDS, diabetes and heart disease.
So far in 2007, no test plots of pharmaceutical crops have been approved by the
USDA for Iowa or Nebraska. Last year, only one plot in Iowa was used for an
experimental project at Iowa State University. That test, part of an ISU
research project, was the only test in 2006 using corn.
"To my knowledge, there is no company working in corn today," said Mike
Phillips, vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
But food crops have not been abandoned. "The isolation distances are so great it
makes it very difficult for someone in that part of the Corn Belt to get a permit,"
Phillips said.
After the ProdiGene problem, the USDA rewrote rules to increase the required
distance between plots of corn.
The Grocery Manufacturers of America/Food Processing Association
organization is relieved by the trend.
"The movement away from corn has helped alleviate our concerns," said Jeffrey
Barach, a food scientist for the organization.
The ProdiGene crisis, Barach said, was a wake-up call for the industry.
The only two food crops currently being used for biopharming research are rice
and safflower. Rice does not pollinate, so it does not carry the same risk of
contamination as corn, Barach said.
Safflower, primarily used for cooking oil, is not a major food crop, he said.
Testing of pharmaceutical crops, even corn, continues in greenhouses where
there is no potential for mingling with food-bound crops. USDA approval is not
required for those tests.
Other tests with corn are being conducted underground with artificial light.
Phillips said the biopharming industry is still in its infancy. So far, no human drug
made from plants has reached the marketplace.
"It is a grand experiment that is going on, and I think we are fortunate to have
entrepreneurs willing to go out and take the risk," Phillips said.
Rockwell City, Iowa, farmer Bill Horan, who is in his sixth year of testing genealtered corn plants, grew the 2006 test plots for ISU. He said he is not giving up
on the possibility that someday farmers can grow drugs in their fields.
But developing a drug for market is a tedious and expensive process, costing
investors about $300 million. The payoff, Horan said, could be big for both
farmers and consumers.
Horan declined to say how much he is paid to grow test plots. "I'll just say that it
is worth your while," he said.
Horan and his brother spend more time on a one-acre test plot of a
pharmaceutical plot than all of the rest of their 4,000 acres combined, he said.
They are meticulous about following federal safety requirements. In six years of
growing the crops, he said, they have never had an incident of a drug-tested
plant being mixed with other crops.
"My prediction is that as soon as the first drug gets commercialized the doors will
be opened," Horan said. "It will happen, because it makes so much sense."