Auckland-based startup Helico is aiming to produce therapeutic compounds from plants and, ultimately, ‘edible medicine’, with insulin its first target.
Its vision is to replace large, expensive pharmaceutical factories with ‘pharming’ – growing high-value therapeutic compounds via low-tech agriculture.
Plants have an ability to store all kinds of compounds, and Helico is exploring using targeted modifications to enable bioaccumulation of certain target molecules within plant cells, essentially turning them into tiny, living pharmaceutical factories.
Helico recently accessed Callaghan Innovation funding to help negotiate the long and high-risk path to market.