Scientists grow drug for rare disease in corn

Scientists have grown a drug to treat a rare genetic disease inside corn plants, potentially offering a cheaper way to manufacture a treatment that currently costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for each patient.

The move marks an advance for the emerging field of molecular farming, which could one day see complex biotech medicines being mass-produced in plants rather than factories.

Researchers from Canada and Australia reported on Tuesday that they had created transgenic corn that could synthesize alpha-L-iduronidase, an enzyme used for a debilitating condition called mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I).