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Molecular Farming
Presentation to the Public Forum on
Plant Molecular Farming
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Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals: A New Opportunity for
Canada
CFIA Public Forum
on Plant Molecular Farming
October 30th 2001
Louis P. Vézina, Ph.D.
Medicago
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Slide 1
Molecular farming: What is it?
- The end product of crop harvests is not food, feed or fibers, but
plant-made pharmaceuticals
- The use of modified plants to produce valuable molecules and life-saving
drugs
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Slide 2
What is a drug ?
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Slide 3
Protein-based therapies
(Text not legible in original presentation)
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Slide 4
Slide 5
Current production system for protein-based therapies
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- Chinese Hamster Ovaries (CHO)
- Expensive
- Not economically viable for some drugs
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Slide 6
Capacity crunch
- Capacity needed in 2010:
3 million litres of CHOs
- Cell culture capacity is almost fully utilized
- Future capacity limitations will be greater
- Need proteins to develop safe and effective drugs
- Shortage of production capacity
- Potential drug candidates will be dropped
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Slide 7
Our bio-factory : The plant
- Plants are production vehicles for any product
- Plants surpass the production capacity of cell culture fermentors for
biopharmaceuticals
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Slide 8
Plants : a solution to the shortfall in manufacturing
capacity for new drugs
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Slide 9
Plant-made pharmaceuticals
How does it work?
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Slide 10
Who are the molecular farmers ? 
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Slide 11
Challenges
- Ensure safety of food, feed, workers and the environment
- A new way to do agriculture
- Industry support for strong, transparent and science-based regulations
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Slide 12
The road ahead
- CFIA consultation process
- Public awareness
- Public input
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Slide 13
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