Professor Stefano Marchetti, a plant geneticist at the University of Udine, together with his research team, has developed a transgenic rice containing genes that enable the production of human enzymes used to treat various genetic metabolic disorders, such as Gaucher disease, which has very serious consequences for those affected.
Today, these enzymes are produced in genetically modified hamster cells, and patients must take them for life at extremely high costs (up to €350,000 per patient per year). Professor Marchetti states that the enzyme obtained from rice is abundant, safe, and would cost one tenth of the price of enzymes derived from hamster cells. Moreover, with just a few hectares of cultivation it would be possible to treat all European patients, and with a few dozen hectares, patients worldwide.
The professor applied for authorization to carry out open-field cultivation, in order to verify the productivity and quality of the enzyme produced by rice under real agricultural conditions, prior to commercialization. However, the Italian Ministries of the Environment and of Agriculture blocked the project by denying the necessary authorizations—a situation that has lasted for over three years.
As a result, Marchetti turned abroad and requested authorization from the United States government, which granted it. The experimentation will therefore take place in the USA and, unless the situation changes in Italy, commercialization may also occur there—leading to a loss for Italy in terms of scientific know-how, employment opportunities, and economic resources.
The project has also been challenged by Greenpeace, although Marchetti assures that the pollen of this rice travels only a few meters in the air and would not be used for food purposes, nor would there be any risk of hybridization with other species.
At present, however, the situation in Italy remains at a standstill.
(News reported in “Il Venerdì” of La Repubblica, March 30, 2012)
