13/07/04

GM crops ‘to produce cheap HIV/AIDS and rabies drugs’

Maize is likely to be the first crop used by the project Copyright: Monsanto

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<h1>GM crops ‘to produce cheap HIV/AIDS and rabies drugs’</h1>
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<p><P>Farmers may one day be producing pharmaceutical products from their crops if a research programme made public yesterday is successful. The Pharma-Planta project aims to develop genetically modified (GM) plants capable of producing drugs and vaccines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and rabies.</P><br />
<P>The European Union has invested US$14.8 million in the programme, which is being led by academics — rather than the biotechnology industry — from 39 laboratories in 11 European countries. The project’s scientific coordinator estimates that plant-derived drugs and vaccines could cost ten to 100 times less than those produced conventionally.<DEL cite=mailto:Mike%20Shanahan dateTime=2004-07-13T14:32> </DEL></P><br />
<P>Friends Of The Earth, a UK environmental group that lobbies against genetically modified crops, approves of the project’s aims but says its research could have widespread negative impacts. </P><br />
<P><a  href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3887517.stm" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to the full BBC Online news story</A></P></p>

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Farmers may one day be producing pharmaceutical products from their crops if a research programme made public yesterday is successful. The Pharma-Planta project aims to develop genetically modified (GM) plants capable of producing drugs and vaccines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and rabies.

The European Union has invested US$14.8 million in the programme, which is being led by academics — rather than the biotechnology industry — from 39 laboratories in 11 European countries. The project’s scientific coordinator estimates that plant-derived drugs and vaccines could cost ten to 100 times less than those produced conventionally.

Friends Of The Earth, a UK environmental group that lobbies against genetically modified crops, approves of the project’s aims but says its research could have widespread negative impacts.

Link to the full BBC Online news story