Texas kicks in for vegan vaccine funding

Oddly in line with last week's federal announcement setting in motion a medical countermeasures makeover in the U.S., the state of Texas is awarding $4 million for a production center that aims to churn out more than a billion doses annually of tobacco-plant-based influenza vaccine. The award comes from a Texas commission formed to help communities hurt by military base closures.

The money will fund facility construction at Bryan-College Station, on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus, which is in the vicinity of a military base closed 50 years ago, says the Texas Tribune. The state has many more recent base closures that have affected their communities.

But Project GreenVax is spearheaded by the Texas Plant-Expressed Vaccine Consortium, which is based at the 145,000-square-foot National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing located at Texas A&M. GreenVax occupies a 13,500-square-meter prefab unit comprising modules for tobacco-growing and research.

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