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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1294)	2/22/1999 6:10:00 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Respond to of 2539

"Monsanto products prevent 'Mad Cow' disease"? Wow what a strange twist! Wait until THIS hits the UK news... (from the article below) "explains White, who adds that plant-based pharmaceutical production has huge advantages in terms of cost savings and the absence of human viruses and prions." WHY is this big news? PRIONS are what cause MAD COW DISEASE. The folks in the UK are ironically afraid of GM crops because they think they can CAUSE mad cow disease. * 'Genetic Engineering News' Reports Monsanto Targets Contract Production of Drugs in Plants LARCHMONT, N.Y., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Monsanto Company has decided to leverage its skills in pharmaceuticals and agricultural biotechnology by offering the contract production of new drugs in plants. Although the St. Louis-based firm set up its Integrated Protein Technologies contract production unit very quietly last year, Monsanto has begun to tout the benefits of its novel venture only recently, notes the lead article in the February 15 issue of "Genetic Engineering News." According to William S. White, business leader of IPT, NeoRx (Seattle, WA) has already tested a monoclonal antibody expressed in corn in Phase I/II clinical trials. The product, which was developed through a collaboration between NeoRx and Monsanto's Agracetus R&D unit, was parenterally administered to oncology patients. Monsanto plans to emphasize the production of transgenic pharmaceutical proteins, vaccines and industrial enzymes in corn, soybean and tobacco. Recombinant proteins expressed in plants appear to function as well as those produced in other systems, explains White, who adds that plant-based pharmaceutical production has huge advantages in terms of cost savings and the absence of human viruses and prions. "Monsanto's move into contract production is a strategic decision by a biotech powerhouse that wants to capitalize on its core competencies," says John Sterling, managing editor of "Genetic Engineering News." "The company has drawn on its pharmaceutical expertise and agbiotech-based technology platform to target contract production, which is one of the fastest growing markets in biotechnology. * For a copy of the February 15 issue of "Genetic Engineering News," call Esther Bicovny at Mary Ann Liebert, publishers, at 914-834-3100.

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1294)	2/22/1999 8:32:00 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Respond to of 2539

Is this Brazil thing another Greenpeace stunt? Now we get the real story behind what's happening in Brazil. This isn't the Brazilian government speaking, but an also-ran speaking for some state. So it has nothing to do with real food or environmental issues. Here this guy is trying to go against the federal government and hopes to create his own private commodity inflation. This scheme is going to be frowned on strongly by the real Brazilian government, the EU, and the US government for trade reasons. Moreover, his scheme wouldn't work unless it could be proven such "segregated" soybeans made it only into specific products, end to end. The costs of keeping such soybeans apart in the food production chain would be extremely high, and I doubt food producers in the chain would want to bear the cost and trouble of doing this. And then there is the question if consumers would actually pay more, by the time the needed infrastructure were set up. Further, once one area says they are going to do this, other bright folks would get the same idea...then the inflated value of the segregated beans would collapse due to more supply, and we would be back to square one...with the farmers all scurrying to plant RR soybeans again. All this, for nothing! Do the folks in the UK realize they may be creating a trade/inflation nightmare...all based on rumors instead of facts? I wonder if this Brazilian guy thought up this scheme. Or is it Greenpeace behind this whole thing again, hoping for some kind of kickback? Dan *** Key Brazilian state moves to block transgenic soy SAO PAULO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's second-largest soybean-producing state of Rio Grande do Sul is trying to ban planting of genetically modified soybeans produced by a local unit of U.S. biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MTC - news), the state's agriculture secretary said. ''We have decided that they should be prohibited,'' the state's Agriculture Secretary Jose Hermeto Hoffamann told Reuters. ''What we are doing now is looking into the ways that this legally can be done,'' he added. Brazil broke from its historic ban on transgenic crops last September by officially recognizing Monsanto's herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready seeds as safe. But Hoffamann said the federal government's decision did not reflect the wishes of producers in Rio Grande do Sul, who fear they may lose sales to transgenic-wary European markets with the introduction of Roundup Ready. He added that the state saw an opportunity to create a specialty market with the transgenic-free soybean crop, which would help offset shrinking profit margins as world prices slide. ''This was an error in judgment on the part of the federal government,'' Hoffamann said. ''We are losing this opportunity to make our country distinct.'' This year, Rio Grande do Sul is expected to turn out roughly 22 percent of the country's 30.92-million-tonne crop -- the world's largest behind the United States. On Monday, Monsanto's stock rose 2-3/4 to 48-1/8 a share in composite New York Stock Exchange trading. Monsanto officials were not immediately available to comment on Monday. But in a previous interview with Reuters, the local Monsanto unit's President Antonio Carlos Queiroz said Roundup Ready soybeans would make their way onto Brazilian farms this year. They would cover nearly half of the 13 million hectares dedicated to the crop by 2002/2003, he added. Meanwhile, Hoffamann said opposition to Roundup Ready also may come from the country's third-largest producer of Mato Grosso state, which is set to harvest 6.7 million tonnes of soybeans this year, according to analysts' estimates. ''I spoke with the secretary of Mato Grosso and he was very interested (in prohibiting planting),'' Hoffamann said. Legal experts in Rio Grande do Sul are investigating whether the country's Constitution gives states the power to set their own environmental laws over crop safety, regardless of federal mandates, he said. Hoffamann said he expected the state would ultimately be able to either ban or at least delay by a period of years the introduction of Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybean seeds.