Low‐cost oral delivery of protein drugs bioencapsulated in plant cells

摘要

Biopharmaceuticals made using current production systems areprohibitively expensive and are not affordable for a large majorityof the global population. The cost of protein drugs ($140 billionin 2013) exceeds GDP of 75% of countries around the globe(Walsh, 2014), making them unaffordable in these countries. Theone-third of the global population that earns $2 per day cannotafford any protein drugs. This is because of their production inprohibitively expensive fermenters, purification, cold storage/transportation, short shelf life and sterile delivery methods.Simpler methods of delivery such as oral dosing could obviatemuch of the expense: however, oral delivery of protein drugs hasbeen elusive for decades because of their degradation in thedigestive system, inability to cross the gut epithelium and deliveryto target cells/tissues.