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“They [Philip Morris]go out of their way to trumpet corporate social responsibility, but we and our colleagues have documented that that is mostly public relations fluff to mask some really odious behaviour that involves addicting, poisoning and killing their customers,” said Mr. Collishaw.

Mr. Sheldon, however, defended the agreement as an important boost to his company at a time when bio-tech firms are hard-pressed to find investors.

“We’re using that money to manufacture products that could ultimately save millions of lives, he said. “We feel pretty good about that.”

Molecular farming invovles using plants to grow specific compounds, especially ones used as medication and vaccines. Some sceintists modify the genetics of plants like tobacco, safflower and alfalfa as they grow. Medicago does not genetically alter the tobacco plants, but injects DNA into the leaves of mature plants, which produce a protein that acts as a shield against flu.

The promise of the science is that it can produce vaccines – or drugs – more quickly and cheaply than with conventional techniques. A plant in North Carolina built with $21 million in funding from the U.S. Defence Department managed to produce 10-million doses of flu vaccine in a “rapid-fire” trial recently, said Mr. Sheldon.

A vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu – which first raised concerns about a pandemic – could be on the market by 2013, a seasonal flu vaccine a few years after that, he said.

Other Canadians who have delved into the molecular-farming field, meanwhile, have not been as successful.

Calgary-based SemBioSys, which was developing insulin and a heart drug produced in gentically altered safflower, closed down earlier this year after burning through millions of dollars. The TSX-listed firm cited “lack of funds.”