The plant-based vaccine market is witnessing soaring growth, expected to boom to a staggering $2.34 billion within the decade. This is due to rising awareness about their benefits, as well as a rise in global infectious diseases including COVID-19, according to a new report.

Plant-based vaccine

A global trends forecast by Transparency Market Research says plant molecular farming is holding ‘promising potentials’. 

Production uses biopharming, which is a process that uses genetically modified plants to produce pharmaceuticals.

To develop plant-based vaccines, an encoded protein with disease-fighting desired genes is inserted into a plant genome.

Research and development comes as many key scientific figures dub using plants to be faster to make, cheaper, and most effective at boosting the immune system.

As a result, a number of large pharma companies revealed they were running clinical trials on plant-based COVID-19 vaccines this year.

The report reflects this, claiming that the market is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.38 percent.

Expanding market

The causes behind the market’s rising growth are due to ‘significant’ increases in epidemic and pandemic diseases, the report states. In particular, COVID-19, Ebola, and Zika are fuelling rising investment into the space.

Moreover, the report says increasing government funding is expected to continue the market soar. In 2020 alone, it was valued at $1.1 billion.

Among the companies meeting the demand are Creative Biolabs, Medicago Inc., iBio, ICON, and more.

You can read the full report here