Ventria Bioscience

Ventria Bioscience is a biotech company headquartered in Sacramento, CA with a focus on human nutrition and human therapeutics. The company's core technology is a plant-based protein production system called ExpressTec. Ventria's product pipeline is based on recombinant lactoferrin and lysozyme for use in medical foods, bioprocessing, cell culture and as a topical anti-infective. These proteins show promise as a supplement to oral rehydration therapy and to treat C.difficile infection because they inhibit C.difficile, but promote the growth of healthy gut flora. Ventria invites other researchers to have access to its recombinant human lactoferrin and recombinant human lysozyme through a program called BioShare.

Regulatory Advantages
ExpressTec uses self-pollinating crops such as rice and barley to minimize the risk of gene flow normally associated with transgenic plants. Plant-produced proteins also offer advantages for cell culture and bioprocessing use because they replace animal derived components, which have become unpopular due to concerns about prion contamination. The use of food crops also allows for slightly less stringent purity standards when the product is processed for oral consumption. Furthermore, versions of both lactoferrin and lysozyme derived from milk and egg white respectively, have been acknowledged by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as being "Generally Regarded As Safe" (GRAS). An extensive scientific review was completed and submitted to FDA. As of April 2006, FDA has not yet responded to Ventria's GRAS notification for lactoferrin which was submitted in 2004, and a notification for lysozyme was submitted earlier this year.

News
On September 29, 2006, Kansas officials announced an agreement to bring Ventria’s new bioprocessing facility to Junction City, Kansas. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was very supportive of the agreement and was quoted as stating “I welcome Ventria Bioscience to Kansas and look forward to their contributions to the health of children worldwide.” The effort to attract Ventria to Kansas involved a number of players, including Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Agriculture, Adrian Polansky, The Kansas Department of Commerce, Junction City and Geary County, Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC), KansasBIO, Kansas State University and Kansas Farm Bureau.

In February, 2007 the results of a new study found that electrolyte solution incorporating Ventria’s products, helped children recover faster from diarrhea. The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, a leading medical journal. The results showed that the children receiving Ventria’s product recovered 30% faster, were more likely to recover from their diarrhea and were less likely to relapse into another episode. Ventria’s product comprises two proteins found naturally in breast milk. In the United States there are more than 1.5 million hospital visits for childhood diarrhea. Globally, childhood diarrhea is the second leading killer of children under the age of 5, claiming 2 million lives annually.