First human efficacy study of a plant-derived influenza vaccine

Abstract

In The Lancet, Brian Ward and colleagues report two efficacy studies that are, to the best of my knowledge, the first randomised phase 3 trials of a plant-derived quadrivalent influenza vaccine.1 The vaccine material was generated in Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant. The plants were transfected with an attenuated plant viral vector (Agrobacterium tumefaciens) expressing influenza haemagglutinin genes and the vaccine was recovered from the transfected plants in the form of virus-like particles.