PlantPharma

Excerpt - For the full article please visit St. Joseph News-Press

The head of Ventria Bioscience, soon to relocate in Maryville, Mo., predicted Wednesday the public will embrace the emerging bioscience industry. It will happen once a mother sees her child saved by a plant-based drug that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.

“That will be the moment that knocks the public’s socks off,” Scott Deeter told a House subcommittee examining different applications for genetically modified crops.

Subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., said genetically modified crops have the ability to revitalize rural communities and produce an “incredible” product for consumers.

“Developments in genetically modified plant research hold great promise not only for traditional agricultural crops to feed the world but also crops for medical purposes,” Mr. Graves said during the hearing of the House Subcommittee on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture and Technology.

“Embracing this new technology will allow us to keep our position as a world leader within the agri-business industry and help cure diseases.”

The emerging technology will lead to more affordable medicines for a broader population, Mr. Deeter said. For example, Ventria can produce 500 kilograms of a drug annually with a capital investment of $4 million compared with $125 million to produce the same product using more conventional methods, the company president testified.

Ventria, which produces biological products from self-pollinating plants like rice and barley, teamed up with Northwest Missouri State University last fall to become the anchor of a proposed $30 million center on the Maryville campus.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based Ventria will relocate to the town and grow 70 percent of its crops through Missouri farmers.

At the hearing, Mr. Deeter described how the company’s protein products, called Lactiva and Lysomin, have several human-health applications. The proteins, which are found in mother’s milk, saliva and tears, are being tested in drugs that would treat acute diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease and lung infections caused by pseudomonas, the leading cause of death for cystic fibrosis patients.

“Ventria’s initial products provide human health benefits, however the company’s technology has the potential to address many challenges faced by other sectors of the economy including animal health, energy, food processing and industrial processing,” Mr. Deeter said.