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British American Tobacco has come one step closer to producing a coronavirus vaccine using tobacco plants, as it gained approval in the US to begin human testing.
The company behind the cigarette brands, including Lucky Strike, Rothmans and Benson & Hedges, said the US Food and Drug Administration had given it clearance to begin a clinical study with adult volunteers.
While large pharmaceutical companies are already producing vaccines, BAT believes their own vaccines can be produced in six weeks, compared to the several months it takes with conventional methods.
This, the company claims, is due to a proprietary technology that allows the elements of the vaccine to accumulate quickly in tobacco plants.
BAT also says that their vaccine is stable at room temperature, unlike the Pfizer / BioNTech jab that is administered in the UK, which must be stored and transported at around -70 ° C.
The vaccine has been developed by BAT’s biotechnology division, Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP), which has previously worked on a treatment for Ebola and is also developing a vaccine against seasonal flu.
BAT said KBP had cloned a part of the coronavirus genetic sequence and developed a potential antigen, which is then inserted into tobacco plants for reproduction.
KBP, which is based in Owensboro, Kentucky, says it can turn tobacco plants into “biological factories” capable of producing proteins that they would not otherwise produce.
Up to 3 million can be grown, harvested and processed in six weeks, meaning the relevant proteins are produced faster than traditional methods, which according to KBP could take months.
The company, which was bought by BAT in 2014, says it can also temporarily code tobacco plants with genetic instructions to produce specific target proteins.
Dr. David O’Reilly, Director of Scientific Research at BAT, said: “Moving to human trials with our seasonal flu and Covid-19 vaccine candidates is a significant milestone and reflects our considerable efforts to accelerate the development of our portfolio of emerging biologics.
“It is our unique plant-based vaccine technology, acting as a rapid and efficient host for the production of antigens for a variety of diseases, that has enabled us to make this progress and respond to the urgent global need for safe and effective treatments. effective. and vaccines “.
BAT’s vaccine is still slightly behind those being produced by big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, which administers doses in the UK and US, with AstraZeneca and Moderna not far behind.
But if it can produce doses quickly and in a stable format, it could help a global vaccination process that is likely to take years, as well as polish the reputation of a company more used to being criticized for harming people’s health.
