Big Tobacco unlikely partner in coronavirus vaccine race

CORINNE GRETLER Cigarette unlikely source makers of life-saving may seem vaccines, like an yyet Philip Morris International Inc. aand British American Tobacco Plc are trying to devise a defence against the coronavirus from the tobacco leaf.

BAT said Wednesday that it’s in preclinical testing of a plant-based vaccine via a U.S. biotech subsidiary Kentucky BioProcessing. Philip Morris has said its partially owned Canadian unit Medicago expects to start human trials for a potential vaccine this summer.

“We believe we have made a significant breakthrough,” said David O’Reilly, BAT’s director of scientific research. “We stand ready to work with governments and all stakeholders to help win the war against COVID-19.”

Big tobacco isn’t a total stranger to the field: BAT’s Kentucky BioProcessing was involved in developing ZMapp, aan Ebola drug, with Mapp Biopharma- ceutical Inc. in 2014 — but that treatment never made it out of the lab. The race to find a vaccine is essential as wworld leaders question how long countries can remain in lockdown without extinguishing economic prospects. The involvement of tobacco companies in the fight against COVID-19 may strike some as paradoxical as the WWorld Health OrganizationWhas said smoking may raise the risk of coming down with more severe reactions to the disease. Philip Morris’s Medicago uses a virrus-like particler grown in a close rela- tive of the tobacco plant. Plant-based vaccines mimic viruses and allow the body’s immune system to recognize them and create an immune response, wwwithout being able to infect or repli- cate.