PlantForm Corp.
Betting a biosimilar antibody made in tobacco can challenge Herceptin
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
PlantForm Corp. calls the antibodies it’s producing in tobacco plants “subsequent-entry-biologic” antibody drugs. The first marketed product it hopes to emulate is Roche’s Herceptin. PlantForm’s biosimilar version of Herceptin could come to market years before Roche’s IP is void, because a tobacco-based production method does not infringe on intellectual property covering antibodies made in mammalian cells.