USDA Approves Plant-Made Vaccine

NEW YORK - Jan 31/06 - SNS -- Dow AgroSciences LLC received regulatory approval for a plant-made vaccine from the USDA's Center for Veterinary Biologics, the first time a plant-made product has been approved.

"With this achievement Dow AgroSciences is revolutionizing the field of preventative medicine with plant-cell-produced vaccines," said Butch Mercer, Dow AgroSciences' global business leader for Animal Health.

The Dow AgroSciences Concert(TM) Plant-Cell-Produced System represents a new category of plant-made vaccines. This leading edge technology utilizes plant cells instead of whole plants in a secure, bio-contained environment to produce vaccines. Because of this bio-contained production system, concerns and challenges associated with making vaccines in whole plants or food crops are eliminated.

"Being the first company to ever register a plant-made vaccine is another example of Dow AgroSciences' cutting edge approach to bringing highly novel and differentiated solutions to the market," said Jerome Peribere, Dow AgroSciences' president and CEO.

The Concert(TM) Plant-Cell-Produced System uses only the necessary parts of the disease causing agent to stimulate immunity in a manufacturing process that is totally free of animal components. According to John Cuffe, Dow AgroSciences' R&D leader for Animal Health, "This approval is a perfect example of how biotechnology is advancing science by creating a new category of vaccines that is both safe and effective."

By achieving this regulatory milestone, Dow AgroSciences has demonstrated that this new technology fits within the existing USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics regulatory approval process. Dow AgroSciences can now focus its efforts on developing new, innovative vaccines with an emphasis on animal health. Possible target animals include: horses, companion animals (such as dogs and cats), poultry, swine, and cattle. Furthermore, utilizing this revolutionary technology for human diseases is a real possibility.

This milestone achievement by Dow AgroSciences was the result of effective collaborations with prominent organizations and institutions including Washington University, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Benchmark Biolabs, Inc., and The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. In less than five years Dow AgroSciences moved the science forward, established a production facility, and received this regulatory approval.