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Plant molecular farming in the wake of the closure of Medicago Inc

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 893–894 (2023)Cite this article

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Plant molecular farming, which includes the production of recombinant proteins and small molecules using plant biotechnology, could provide a step change in improving health outcomes, particularly in developing countries1,2. This field was recently surprised by the announcement that the Canadian biotechnology company Medicago has ceased operations owing to the termination of investment by its parent company3. Medicago has been a pioneer and a leader in the commercial development of plant molecular farming, particularly vaccine production by transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana (tobacco). A key contribution of Medicago to the COVID-19 pandemic response was the licensing in Canada of a virus-like particle vaccine (Covifenz) in under 24 months from initial design. While some may be concerned that the closure of this company will be a major step back for the entire field, the International Society for Plant Molecular Farming does not believe this closure to be a serious indictment of the technology, nor should it have a significant impact on future endeavors.

The plant molecular farming industry has always cited global access to health as one of its key targets, and this mantle has been taken up by companies in low- and middle-income countries, such as Thailand’s Baiya Phytopharm and South Africa’s Cape Bio Pharms. Baiya Phytopharm has taken two COVID-19 vaccine candidates into phase 1 clinical trials, as well as another vaccine and four anti-cancer antibodies in preclinical development (manufactured at its current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) facility in Bangkok). Cape Bio Pharms is marketing research reagents, including several related to COVID-19, but these products could also be developed as therapeutics if produced under GMP conditions. Both companies use the same basic technology as Medicago: transient expression in tobacco.

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Fig. 1: Key landmarks in the development and commercialization of plant molecular farming.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Sustainability, Biotechnology and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Rome, Italy

    Eugenio Benvenuto

  2. Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Inge Broer

  3. Medicago R&D, Québec City, Canada

    Marc-André D’Aoust

  4. BioPharming Research Unit, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Inga Hitzeroth

  5. John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK

    Penny Hundleby & Hadrien Peyret

  6. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

    Rima Menassa

  7. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland

    Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey

  8. Chart Biotechnology, Gilleleje, Denmark

    Sancha Salgueiro

  9. BlueRock Therapeutics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Pooja Saxena

  10. Cape Bio Pharms, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jennifer Stander

  11. Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Heribert Warzecha

  12. St. George’s, University of London, London, UK

    Julian Ma

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julian Ma.

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Competing interests

This Correspondence is authored by the 13 members of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Plant Molecular Farming. One member, M.-A.D., is an employee of Medicago Inc., and one member, J.S., is an employee of Cape Bio Pharms, two companies that are discussed in the Correspondence.

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Benvenuto, E., Broer, I., D’Aoust, MA. et al. Plant molecular farming in the wake of the closure of Medicago Inc. Nat Biotechnol 41, 893–894 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01812-w

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