Ukraine to develop biopharmaceuticals in living plants ’for regional needs’
The government of Ukraine seeks to bring down the overall cost and development time of commercial drug manufacture by aligning the nation’s future health planning with new plant-based biopharmaceutical technologies.
In a pact involving the USA’s Large Scale Biology Corp. (LSBC) and Germany’s Icon Genetics AG, which will be seen as very progressive by the life science community, Dr Volodymyr Seminozhenko, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, signed an official letter of intent with two foreign biotechnology companies to facilitate domestic development of plant-derived biopharmaceuticals.
With the support of the Ukraine government, LSBC of Vacaville, California, USA and Icon Genetics AG of Munich, Germany would work with Ukrainian scientists to produce specific biologicals, for example therapeutic proteins or vaccines, in living plants, with the help of LSBC’s and Icon’s proprietary technologies.
Future collaboration may be expanded to include one or more Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies. Announcing this part of his government’s biopharmaceutical strategy, Dr Seminozhenko commented on "the high cost of therapeutic medicine" and "our dependence on imports in this area."
The Government of Ukraine intends to address these issues "by relying on the most advanced technologies for the production of biopharmaceuticals."
Icon’s transgenic plant technology would be used by Ukrainian scientists to develop plants producing the pharmaceutical proteins, while LSBC’s downstream processing technology and biomanufacturing expertise would be used for commercial-scale pharmaceutical-grade production.
According to Yuri Gleba, PhD, CEO of Icon Genetics, this would "further strengthen our intensive collaboration with LSBC, the world leader in plant-based production of pharmaceutical proteins."
LSBC is a US-based company with facilities in California, Maryland and Kentucky. This international pharmaceutical development deal follows an announcement, made in July 2002, of a plant-based vaccine development collaboration with South Africa’s University of Cape Town to address AIDS and cervical cancer.
LSBC’s CEO, Robert L. Erwin considers "the breadth of international opportunities in biotechnology today and the strength of LSBC in addressing global biopharmaceutical demands."
In increasing the global awareness of LSBC’s unique technologies and their commercial applications, John D. Fowler, president of LSBC comments: "Faster, cheaper, safe and effective drugs for human beings are our mutual goal."
Information about: Icon Genetics
Information about: LSBC
Keywords : Ukraine Germany USA Transgenic plants Biopharmaceuticals Icon Genetics LSBC Therapeutic proteins Vaccines
