Molecular farming: production of drugs and vaccines in higher plants

On the basis of developments in plant biotechnology, drug and vaccine production by higher plants can be added to microbial and animal cell culture processes. When genes encoding drug or vaccine formation under a suitable promoter are introduced into plants, these useful compounds can be economically produced from CO(2) and inorganic chemicals using sunlight. The merits and demerits of the plant process are discussed in this paper. The Journal of Antibiotics (2010) 63, 431-433, dot 10 1038/0.2010 63, published online 30 June 2010