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As I sat writing this ‘personal reflections’ manuscript in the spring of 2015, I was seeing press reports related to the use of tobacco to make an Ebola therapeutic called ZMapp. For several months newspaper articles, radio shows and hour-long

As I sat writing this ‘personal reflections’ manuscript in the spring of 2015, I was seeing press reports related to the use of tobacco to make an Ebola therapeutic called ZMapp. For several months newspaper articles, radio shows and hour-long TV documentaries have given the public unprecedented exposure to the fact that ‘plant-made pharmaceuticals’ (PMP) can be life-saving drugs. I have been asked by many nonspecialists – why tobacco? How can this work? After spending over twenty years doing research in this field and many, many hours in public policy meetings promoting PMPs as an important tool of public health, I do not tire of hearing the same questions. Although there is an increasing pipeline of new protein drugs that will come from plants for both human and animal health, the general public has little knowledge of these specialized tools and therefore limited support for the field. ZMapp has given us free advertising on an international scale that I could never have anticipated.
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    Title
    • Plant-made pharmaceuticals: from ‘Edible Vaccines’ to Ebola therapeutics
    Date Created
    2015-09-08
    Resource Type
  • Text
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    Identifier
    • Digital object identifier: 10.1111/pbi.12460
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      1467-7644
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      1467-7652
    Note
    • The final version of this article, as published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, can be viewed online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.12460/abstract?

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    This is a suggested citation. Consult the appropriate style guide for specific citation guidelines.

    Arntzen, C. (2015). Plant-made pharmaceuticals: from ‘Edible Vaccines’ to Ebola therapeutics. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 13(8), 1013-1016. doi:10.1111/pbi.12460

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