British American Tobacco's COVID-19 Vaccine May Enter Trials
Biotechnology companies across the globe are advancing scores of clinical trials in the race to develop effective vaccines and therapies that can be used against the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes. Results from those tests are also trickling out into the news media, offering the public a view of possible vaccine design and manufacture.
British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI), through Kentucky Bioprocessing (KBP) and Reynolds American, is working toward a vaccine against COVID-19 that's being manufactured in tobacco plants. Tobacco plants are considered excellent platforms for producing vaccines at a low cost.
Kentucky Bioprocessing specializes in the production of pharmaceutical proteins grown with the use of plants. These proteins can be components of antibodies, hormones, enzymes, and (of course) vaccines. The company's COVID-19 vaccine will prove additionally useful as an experiment regarding the speed of commercialization for such essential medicines.
Source Fool.com
