Tomato crop enriched with Parkinson's disease drug created

[Farooqji]

Scientists want to create a production pipeline of a tomato crop enriched with the Parkinson's disease drug L-DOPA, giving patients new access to one of the world's most essential medicines.

The development of the genetically modified (GM) tomato, led by British researchers, has implications for developing nations where access to pharmaceutical drugs is restricted.

farminguk.com/news/tomato-c...

[MBAnderson]

On the surface, this sounds like a good idea, but what about the people/children who eat these tomatoes for whom L-dopa would cause problems. Do we really want big corporations and big Pharma putting pharmaceuticals in our food? A better approach would be to force big Pharma to provide L-dopa therapy at a cost developing countries can afford.

[ParlePark in reply to MBAnderson]

Good luck with that.

[aatje]

I don't get a good feeling about this.

What is the advantage over the "normal" levodopa? I don't see it.

[Hidden in reply to aatje]

You could potentially grow it in places where more traditional sources of ldopa like CL or MP are not available or affordable. (I guess)

[aatje in reply to Hidden]

So why don't you bet on that?

[Hidden in reply to aatje]

I don't understand.