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Dec 8, 2021

A COVID vaccine grown in plants measures up

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A Canadian biotech firm is reporting positive results from a large study of its COVID-19 vaccine. What makes it unusual is that the key ingredient of the vaccine is grown in plants. Medicago has already developed an experimental flu vaccine in Nicotiana benthamian, a plant related to tobacco. When the pandemic struck, the company decided to try to make a COVID-19 vaccine.

Now it appears those efforts have succeeded. “This is an incredible moment for Medicago and for novel vaccine platforms,” Medicago CEO and President Takashi Nagao said in a statement.


A COVID-19 vaccine from a Canadian biotech firm has been found effective at preventing moderate to severe disease. It could soon become the first plant-based vaccine authorized for human use.

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