Prognosis
Coronavirus Vaccine Race Gets Unlikely Partner: Big Tobacco
- BAT, Philip Morris working with biotech firms in U.S., Canada
- Tobacco leaves are being studied for antigen production
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Cigarette makers may seem like an unlikely source of life-saving vaccines, yet Philip Morris International Inc. and British American Tobacco Plc are trying to devise a defense against the coronavirus from the humble tobacco leaf.
BAT said Wednesday that it’s in pre-clinical testing of a plant-based vaccine via a U.S. biotech subsidiary Kentucky BioProcessing. Philip Morris has said its partially owned Canadian unit Medicago expects to start human trials for a potential vaccine this summer.