Building the product pipeline for the commercial demonstration of plant-based molecular factories

The "Pharma-Factory" project aimed to strengthen the competitiveness of the European bioindustry in the field of plant molecular factories. The motivation stems from the need to overcome existing technological, regulatory, and societal challenges that hinder the commercial use of plants as a production system for biopharmaceutical products. Compared to microbial and animal cell cultures, plant molecular farming (PMF) systems are underdeveloped despite their potential advantages such as safety and cost. A key problem is the public acceptance of genetically modified organisms, which is characterized by a lack of information and experience. Current limitations include insufficient regulatory clarity and technical uncertainties that impede broader trust in these technologies.

The interdisciplinary Pharma-Factory consortium, comprised of 14 industry and research partners from six EU countries and Israel, aims to counteract these limitations. An excellent network of researchers from five companies and nine research institutions is being united to conduct multidisciplinary studies. The goal is to further develop various platforms and target products in the field of molecular plant breeding. The project concept allows the participation of several, potentially competing SMEs to advance their own business plans and protect their intellectual property. At the same time, they are jointly contributing to the global advancement of molecular agriculture.

Fraunhofer IME's key tasks in the project were to improve established plant expression platforms and develop a laboratory kit for recombinant protein expression for broad, commercial distribution. Platform optimization ensures flexibility, adaptability, and user-friendly features to make the benefits of plant-based production accessible to a new group of end users/customers, particularly biotech researchers in SMEs, research institutions, and educational establishments.