Progress report

The objective for the Action is to co-ordinate European efforts in plant Molecular Farming (MF) to ensure rapid generation, development and commercialization of products that will sustain the industry. The scientific program is pursued through three topics: WG1 Strategic development of MF, WG2 Production systems and process development, WG3 Target molecules – assessment of (clinical) need and production feasibility. The outcome of the Action will be a sustainable European plant MF community with clear frameworks for regulatory, bio-safety and IP issues. Eventually a European Committee of MF will be established in order to influence European policy and to guarantee continuity of the activities in the fast developing field of recombinant proteins. The Road Map of MF demonstrated promising future trends, verified the availability of a rich toolbox and showed a clear orientation towards products and production systems. The work carried out under WP1 was divided into four focus groups: Regulatory framework, Public perception/stakeholder interactions, Developing country aspects and IP licensing. The outcome will take the form of Position, Information and Vision papers and Strategic Documents. Plant MF can be only successful when it meets industrial requirements with respect to cost of goods as well as product yield, quality and homogeneity. The success of specific plant production platforms is tightly interlinked with the features of specific protein products and the activities of WG2 and WG3 are performed in close cooperation. To facilitate this Molecular farming Protein Expression database has been formulated and is now fully operational.