Canada's Medicago--which is making vaccines from tobacco--has earned a $16 million investment from tobacco giant Philip Morris. Philip Morris gains a 49.9 percent stake in the developer, along with a potential new use of tobacco that can save lives instead of threaten them. Representatives from the two companies met at a Vancouver biotech conference.
Medicago says it can develop a new avian flu vaccine using tobacco leaves for production purposes. Tobacco leaves grow quickly, offering a faster and potentially more efficient manufacturing process. A number of developers are advancing new vaccine production methods to replace the egg-based approach that is fraught with problems.
- read the Medicago release