Page 345 - Binder2

Then Along Comes the Lettuce

Now imagine taking the same therapeutic protein—the
same antibody fragment, enzyme, or immune modulator—
and producing it in a lettuce leaf.

● The gene is expressed in the chloroplasts of the
plant.
● The plant is grown in a controlled greenhouse,
harvested, and freeze-dried.
● The dried plant powder is milled, encapsulated, and
swallowed—no needle, no cold chain, no infusion
clinic.

The moat disappears.

The protein is the same—but the complexity that justified
its price vanishes. The injection becomes a capsule. The
sterile facility becomes a greenhouse. The nurse becomes
optional. The price, inevitably, must follow.

Because once you can deliver that same clinical effect for
$10 instead of $3,000, the only thing holding up the old
model is momentum—and fear of cannibalization.

Why Would Pharma Embrace That?

Now ask: why would a publicly traded company—one
whose valuation is based on projections for $20 billion in
injectable biologic revenue—choose to undercut itself?

The honest answer?

They wouldn’t.

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