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May 29, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"HIV Vaccine Grown in GM Maize"

Chemical Week (www.chemweek.com) (05/01/02) P. 33

The biotechnology company ProdiGene, of College Station, Texas, says that it has created a vaccine protein for the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in genetically modified maize, and the firm claims to be on the way to doing the same for a vaccine against HIV.  ProdiGene marketing director John McClellan acknowledges that the SIV vaccine is not a panacea for HIV, but he believes that it could one day become part of a "super vaccine."  The firm could be testing the vaccine maize as early as this fall in humans.  McClellan noted that the vaccine is assimilated into the cell wall of the maize seed, which survives through the human stomach and is broken down only in the lower intestine to be absorbed by the body.  He said that production is scalable through increased plantings of maize.

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