WASHINGTON NEWS

FDA acts on pharmaceutical-producing corn
On November 19, the Food and Drug Administration announced that the biotechnology firm ProdiGene has agreed to strengthen the controls on any bioengineered plant it grows that will be used in current and future clinical studies. FDA obtained this commitment after learning that a small amount of corn ProdiGene engineered to produce pharmaceutical material for a clinical study had been harvested in a field of soybeans. In mid-October, a small number of volu…