Plant Molecular Farming is the manufacture of high-value products using plant biotechnology. Pharma-Factory was conceived and designed by SMEs active in the field to produce medical, veterinary and diagnostic products. Product-driven work packages and a collective approach to public involvement and regulatory consultation will accelerate commercialisation of new bio-products, and increase the competitiveness of European bio-industry by resolving technical, social and economic bottlenecks in this field. All parts of the work programme are addressed by refining technologies using new synthetic biology tools, demonstrating manufacturing advantages for individual products, identifying a clear regulatory path for each platform technology, developing clear business cases with supporting techno-economic evaluations and life cycle analyses and improving public engagement and acceptance. Five SMEs will develop products that include arylsulfatase B (for human enzyme replacement therapy), a vaccine for infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus in fish, two highly potent HIV neutralising antibody-based fusion proteins and plant chimaeric virus-like-particles for a diagnostic kit. In collaboration with academic partners they will advance six plant molecular farming platforms for this purpose, including whole plants, algae, hairy roots and plant cell culture, by designing and developing new tools to increase the competitiveness, utility and versatility of each platform. All companies will reach Technology Readiness Level 5 within the lifetime of the project, with two products to be commercialized. The project provides a unique opportunity to improve public involvement with plant biotechnology at a European-wide level. A work package has been dedicated to gain maximal impact by engaging with all stakeholders – from scientists to government and the public at large, developing new tools to facilitate communication, to help understand and reduce barriers to acceptance.

The pharmaceutical industry depends on secondary metabolites and APIs for life-saving treatments, yet traditional production—open-field cultivation and chemical synthesis—faces low yields, high costs, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Producing 1 kg of vincristine, a key anti-cancer drug, requires 500 tons of plant material, making it economically and ecologically unsustainable. Additionally, 70% of APIs in Europe are imported, with 60% sourced from China and India, exposing the industry to supply disruptions and geopolitical risks. Climate change, raw material shortages, and global crises have highlighted the need for a scalable, sustainable, and locally controlled alternative. At Samabriva, we have developed the first scalable hairy-root bioproduction platform, a breakthrough technology that transforms API and secondary metabolite production. By integrating proprietary bioreactors with genetically optimized hairy roots, our platform enables continuous, high-yield production in fully controlled environments. This eliminates open-field farming, cuts production costs by over 50%, and boosts yields up to 10,000 times. Unlike conventional agriculture, which depends on pesticides, solvents, and vast land use, our process is chemical-free and environmentally sustainable, reducing carbon emissions by 70% while ensuring 100% batch-to-batch consistency. Samabriva’s patented bioreactors, designed for industrial-scale production, enable the parallel deployment of 1,000L units, reaching 50,000L capacity by 2027. This allows pharmaceutical companies to secure API production locally, reducing lead times by 75% and mitigating supply chain risks. Furthermore, our advanced genetic engineering enables precise control of metabolic pathways, optimizing high-value molecule production, including vinblastine, scopolamine, and taxol, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.