Calif. biotech firm moving to Missouri

MARYVILLE, Mo. -- A California-based bioscience company that uses genetically modified crops to create pharmaceuticals will move to Maryville as part of a deal with Northwest Missouri State University, the school announced.

Ventria Bioscience will move from Sacramento to Maryville within the next 12 to 18 months and produce 70 percent of its crops in Missouri, the university said. The agreement was announced Thursday after $5 million was secured by the university through several anonymous investors for operating capital for Ventria.

The deal calls for Northwest Missouri State to acquire a former building east of Maryville. When remodeled, it will house the Ventria offices and laboratory until a new 22,000-square-foot structure is added to the university's Garret-Strong science building.

That building will be used by Ventria and other bioscience companies.

"It's on the model of Silicon Valley," said university president Dean Hubbard. "If you get enough of them together, they draw on the same talent pool. They compete at one level but cooperate on another level."

The practice of using engineered plants to produce nonfood items, such as drugs or industrial chemicals, is called "biopharming." The relatively new area of research has angered critics who say the crops pose the risk of contaminating soil or food and crossbreeding with other plants.

But officials only had praise for the project Thursday. Hubbard said the partnership will help the farming economy and possibly bring back the viability of small farms.

"Farmers will make more than twice what they ever dreamed of making in the past" by growing the genetically engineered crops, he said.

Ventria has contracted farmers in southeast Missouri to grow 200 acres of hybrid rice plants. Eventually, Hubbard said, northwest Missouri farmers will benefit as the operation expands.

"It gets up to 25,000 to 28,000 acres," Hubbard said. "The projection is in about two years we'll start production up here."

On the Net

Ventria Bioscience: www.ventriabio.com

Northwest Missouri State University: www.nwmissouri.edu