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Leverkusen, Germany
June 16, 2008
Medicinal products from plants or even tobacco for health – a
vision that could soon become reality.
Bayer and its subsidiary Icon
Genetics have together developed a new production process that
can be used to produce biotech drugs in tobacco plants. A new
production facility for therapeutic proteins was inaugurated on
June 16 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, with a ceremony attended by
guests from the scientific community, politics and business. In
the future, the active substances produced in the tobacco plants
could be used to develop new approaches to the therapy and
prevention of diseases for which the current medical options are
not satisfactory.
“This project is intended to improve our chances of finding new
therapies for life-threatening diseases by using drugs obtained
with biotechnological methods,” explained Dr. Wolfgang Plischke,
a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG whose
responsibilities include innovation. “Not all cancers are the
same. There are many types of tumor disease which have to be
treated individually with specific active substances. The
objective is to use this process to produce an individual drug
for each patient." This future-oriented technology is a perfect
example of the innovative way in which Bayer is combining its
extensive expertise in pharmaceutical research with its
knowledge of plant genetics and biotechnology.
At Icon Genetics in the Halle Biocenter, 26 people are currently
employed in research into and the development of biotech active
substances produced in plants. These substances could be used,
for example, to treat cancer or as a vaccine against influenza.
The scientists work in approximately 1,000 square meters of
laboratories and greenhouses. The new pilot plant has created 11
new jobs in Halle for highly qualified experts, most of whom
come from the region. Bayer acquired Icon Genetics in 2006, and
since then has invested over EUR 10 million in Halle in the
study of plant-made pharmaceuticals.
“Icon Genetics embodies the high innovative potential of
biotechnology. We are tremendously proud that a company like
this has come to Halle,” Minister-President Böhmer commented.
“It shows that Saxony-Anhalt is a good location for research and
that the success in biotechnology that is being achieved here is
meeting with respect throughout the world.”
Biopharmaceuticals offer perspectives for beating disease
Today 15 percent of all medicines are produced using
biotechnology, and as many as one in four new drug products is a
biopharmaceutical whose active ingredient is produced in
bioreactors using bacteria, brewer’s yeast and insect or hamster
cells, for example. These products, and cancer treatments in
particular, are expected to account for a growing share of the
market.
The production of “personalized medicines” using biotechnology
processes is an especially important area. Proteins produced in
tobacco plants can be obtained rapidly and in high yields, and
this offers prospects for therapies which have previously been
impracticable because of the length of time taken to produce
them or their economic viability.
Before the tobacco plant can start producing a pharmaceutical
active ingredient, the blueprint for the relevant drug product
first has to be transported into the plant with the aid of
agrobacteria. The plant is placed head-first in a bath
containing a bacterial solution specific to the plant. A vacuum
process enables the plant to take up the bacterial solution
through its pores. The solution is distributed throughout the
tobacco plant and its genetic information passes into the
plant’s cells. The plant then uses the blueprint introduced in
this way to produce the active ingredient.
The first protein produced in the pilot plant in Halle which
will be a candidate for clinical development is a
patient-specific antibody vaccine for the therapy of
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). NHL is a malignant disorder
affecting the lymphatic system. The objective of the new therapy
is to activate the patient’s immune system, enabling the
malignant cells to be targeted and destroyed by the body’s own
defense system. Phase I clinical testing is scheduled to begin
in 2009. The therapeutic proteins obtained in Halle need to meet
certain requirements in order to be used in clinical studies.
“This facility for the production of clinical trial supplies is
an important step towards using our technology for the benefit
of patients,” said Professor Yuri Gleba, Managing Director and
founder of Icon Genetics. “Using our method, the tobacco plant
is able to produce large quantities of complex compounds for
medicinal use – and it is a particularly rapid, simple, safe and
low-cost method.”
The Bayer company involved in this project in a lead capacity is
Bayer Innovation GmbH (BIG). BIG, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Bayer AG, evaluates and develops new fields of business for the
Bayer Group that are related to Bayer’s core competencies of
health care, nutrition and innovative materials and complement
its current key areas of innovation and business.
Icon Genetics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer
Innovation GmbH; it was established in 1999 and acquired by
Bayer in 2006. The company develops processes for the
biotechnological production of medicines and other high-end
products in plants.
Bayer: Science For A Better Life
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the
fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. The
company’s products and services are designed to benefit people
and improve their quality of life. At the same time Bayer
creates value through innovation, growth and improved earning
power. The Group is committed to the principles of sustainable
development and acknowledges and accepts its role as a socially
and ethically responsible “corporate citizen”. Economy, ecology
and social responsibility are corporate policy objectives of
equal rank. In fiscal 2007, Bayer employed 106,200 people and
had sales of EUR 32.4 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to
EUR 1.9 billion, the R&D budget to EUR 2.6 billion. More
information is available on the Internet at
http://www.bayer.com/ |
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