Tobacco as Medicinal Plant?

Source from:  RICHARD BLACKWELL Globe and Mail Update September 22, 2008 09/23/2008

Cigarette giant Philip Morris International Inc. has bought a large position in a Quebec City biotechnology company that plans to make vaccines from tobacco leaves. Medicago Inc. is a couple of years away from having its first vaccine – to protect individuals from avian flu – on the market, but the $16-million from Philip Morris will help propel it to that stage, chief executive officer Andy Sheldon said in an interview Monday. The marriage of a multinational tobacco company with a small Canadian biotech firm may seem unusual, but the union makes sense, Mr. Sheldon said. Medicago's technology, if successful, will make use of substantial amounts of greenhouse-grown tobacco. For its part, Philip Morris is keen on finding new uses for tobacco beyond making health-damaging cigarettes. "Philip Morris has made a decision that it wants to look at other business opportunities, and of course this one is just a natural," Mr. Sheldon said. Executives from the two companies met at a biotechnology conference in Vancouver, he said, and both realized they could gain from co-operating. In the deal announced Monday, Philip Morris will buy shares and warrants that will give it a 49.9 per cent stake in Medicago. The Medicago process does not alter the genetic makeup of tobacco, but involves injecting material into the leaf cells, which then secretes a protein that can be harvested and used as a vaccine. When injected into humans, the vaccine prompts the production of antibodies that protect the individual from the disease. Mr. Sheldon said Medicago's process will allow the production of avian flu vaccines much more quickly than current process, which use eggs. Tobacco is used because it has large leaves and grows quickly, making it an ideal plant to quickly generate the vaccine which can then be extracted. Philip Morris, which has been conducting its own biotechnology research to try to eliminate some of the carcinogens from tobacco, will likely have expertise that can contribute to Medicago's work, Mr. Sheldon said. Medicago takes its name from the Latin word for alfalfa, the plant that the company initially used for its experiments. It has abandoned alfalfa, however, and now uses only tobacco. Eventually, the company's process could be used to create large volumes of vaccines for other strains of flu, and eventually it might be used to generate other vaccines. Enditem