WATERVILLE – Farmers in north-central Washington have grown a genetically modified safflower plant the past two years for a Canadian biotechnical pharmaceutical company searching for a cheaper way to produce insulin.
Eventually, SemBioSys Genetics Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, hopes to raise several thousand acres of genetically modified-organism safflower, mainly to meet what company officials believe will be a growing demand for insulin for diabetics and possibly to produce anticancer and cardiovascular drugs.
The company announced in July that it had developed to ability to produce insulin from GMO safflower seed for far less money than the traditional method of producing synthetic insulin – genetic engineering of bacteria grown in large, steel bioreactors.
“We put a gene in the plant and eliminate steps in processing insulin. Our technology has the ability to transform the economics of drug production,” company president Andrew Baum said in a telephone interview with The Wenatchee World last week.
Baum said the company can cut traditional production costs by up to 90 percent and meet the global demand for insulin on 10,000 to 20,000 acres of GMO safflower.
Baum did not want to disclose which farms grew the GMO safflower because he does not want opponents to destroy the crops. The crops were grown on 14 acres in Douglas, Grant and Lincoln counties.
SemBioSys obtained permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state Department of Agriculture for the production of GMO safflower and has to comply with tight regulations, he said.
GMO safflower cannot cross with wheat or other grains, though it can cross with regular safflower. However, regular safflower isn’t grown in north-central Washington, which makes it a good place for the genetically modified version because there won’t be any concern of cross-contamination, Baum said.
This year’s harvest went not for insulin, but for a protein genetically introduced to the plant to be fed to farmed shrimp in South America. The goal is to boost the shrimp’s immune system and protect it from a virus, said Rick Keon, the company’s field regulatory affairs and planting operations manager.
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