www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

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.

[www.smh.com.au]

------------------------------------------
Posted to Phorum via PhorumMail