Review Paper:
Current Perspectives
on Plant Molecular Farming: Challenges, Ethical Issues, Regulatory Frameworks, Case
Studies and Social Impacts
Marwal Avinash
Res. J. Biotech.; Vol. 20(12); 284-295;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/2012rjbt2840295; (2025)
Abstract
The production of valuable recombinant proteins using plants as molecular factories
is far from classical biotechnology, thus raising ethical, social and regulatory
concerns. Molecular farming is a plant-based system exploited to produce pharmaceutical
and therapeutic products. This area of plant biotechnology offers a wide span for
biopharmaceutical and therapeutic products, but has increasingly been used as a
manufacturing industry for a limited range of substances. So far, only a small number
of products have made it to the markets, though the number of species expressing
merged products, product attributes and the general scale are on the rise. As with
the cultivation of traditionally released genetically modified crop plants, issues
of justice and 'democratic decision-making' have to be taken into account when releasing
molecular farming products.
The imposition of diverse forms of liability for companies conducting field trials
of clean phytosimulant crops and the different interpretations that make up 'contamination'
were recognized as the engine driving political debates. The current review highlights
the challenges, ethical issues, regulatory frameworks, case studies and social impacts
of plant molecular farming.
