Insulin from plants will meet demand
Here's an interesting article on how genetically modified crops are needed in the production of insulin to meet global demands.
Alisa
Insulin from plants will meet demand
Sydney Morning Herald
August 24, 2006
Insulin must be grown in genetically engineered plants to meet fast-growing demand created by the global diabetes epidemic, an Australian conference has been told.
More than seven per cent of Australians have type two diabetes, with up to 40 per cent relying on regular insulin injections to control blood sugar levels.
Until the mid-1980s, insulin was animal derived, but with the advent of biotechnology most of the world's supply is now produced through fermentation of bacteria in laboratories.
But Canadian biopharmaceuticals expert Professor Maurice Moloney has told the International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology in Adelaide that the costs of production were enormous and fast-growing.
The number of people with type two diabetes, also know as the lifestyle disease, was expected to increase to 300 million within 20 years.
Those suffering the lesser virulent type one diabetes are entirely dependent on insulin injections.
Prof Moloney, founder of SemBioSys Genetics, said genetically engineered plants offered a cheap, abundant and viable source of insulin.
"The capital required to produce the required amount of insulin from other sources runs into billions of dollars," he said.
"To produce it from plants would be about one tenth of that cost.
"And what's more, it would not require millions of hectares (because) world supply could be produced from two average sized farms."
Prof Moloney said purified insulin could be authentically produced from proteins in genetically engineered plant seeds to be identical to insulin produced in the pancreas of healthy people.
Research facilities were working to create safe technology to produce insulin in oil seed plants, such as safflower.
He said there was intense rivalry among companies around the world to prove the area could provide an unprecedented scale of production and storage flexibility.
The process required extensive agricultural controls and there were challenges in navigating the pharmaceutical approval system through clinical trials for safety and effectiveness, Prof Moloney said.
"However, the capability exists and one example of clinical success will transform the insulin production industry, and indeed the production of other pharmaceuticals," the scientist said.
