Plants have been utilized medicinally for a very long time, millennia in fact, which makes them a natural resource for treatments and therapies. Because of recent advances in biotechnology, it is now possible to turn plants into “factories” that produce therapeutic proteins that can be included into the creation of biologics. This is made possible by the fact that plants can be genetically modified. There has been a lot of talk in the media over the past few days regarding the idea that medicines made from plants could be successful in treating life-threatening illnesses like Ebola.
Creating therapeutic proteins in plants can be a strategy that, in comparison to other ways of protein manufacture, is less hazardous, more productive, and more cost-effective. Because of this:
- In every single part of the earth, plant life is responsible for the most efficient generation of protein. Both the increased capacity of plants to assimilate genetic information and the increased capacity of plants to manufacture complex proteins have the potential to be employed in the production of medications that are more effective.
- The traditional methods for cultivating cells require significant inputs of time and resources, including both money and labor. The manufacturing facilities and labor costs associated with plant-based pharmaceuticals are significantly lower than those associated with conventional pharmaceuticals. In addition to this, it is far less difficult to increase production in order to fulfill customer orders. The production of proteins that are derived from plants has the potential to be the method that is both the most effective and the most cost-effective in terms of providing patients with the benefits of increased and more quick access to newly developed medicines.
- There is currently a severe global capacity bottleneck for the manufacture of biologics, and conventional processes for the production of proteins are currently struggling to overcome this obstacle. The requirements of the patient population cannot be met by the manufacture of sufficient quantities of therapeutic proteins using the technologies that have traditionally been used. Plants that are capable of operating as factories for the synthesis of protein could contribute to the reduction of this deficit.
- When compared to alternative techniques of production, the growth of plants that have the capacity to mass-produce pharmaceutical proteins is often far more cost-effective than the other approaches. This is owing to the fact that manufacturing methods based on plants do not require the same substantial financial inputs in capital as do other methods of production. Because of the cheaper production and operational expenses connected with drugs produced from plants, there may be additional funds available to be used in research and development of novel treatments.
Many nutritionists and medical professionals continue to advise their patients to adopt a Hello Mello plant-based lifestyle, despite the fact that an ever-increasing number of trendy diets now claim to be beneficial to patients’ health.
