Scientists grow drug for rare disease in corn LONDON (Reuters) -
Scientists have grown a drug to treat a rare genetic disease
inside corn plants, potentially offering a cheaper way to
manufacture a treatment that currently costs hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year for each patient. The move marks an
advance for the emerging field of molecular farming, which could
one day see complex biotech medicines being mass-produced in
plants rather than factories. Researchers from Canada and
Australia reported on Tuesday that they had created transgenic
corn that could synthesize alpha-L-iduronidase, an enzyme used
for a debilitating condition called mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS
I). The disease causes progressive damage to the heart, brain,
and other organs. The research is still at an early stage and
the new plant-grown medicine has not been tested in clinical
trials, so any eventual treatment is still many years from
reaching the market. But the work, led by scientists at Canada's
Simon Fraser University, is a sign