A California-based company specializing in plant-made pharmaceuticals has pulled out of an agreement to move its operations to northwest Missouri, where it was to have produced proteins from genetically modified rice. The company, Ventria Bioscience, planned to extract the proteins at a plant under construction at Northwest Missouri State University. The proteins, normally found in human saliva, milk and tears, could be refined for use in medicines to fight diarrhea, dehydration and other conditions.But delays in the approval of funding by the Missouri state legislature led Ventria to terminate its agreement to move its operations to Northwest Missouri State, which is in Maryville, about 90 miles north of Kansas City. Ground was broken for the plant last summer.Ventria, a privately held company based in Sacramento, said in a joint statement with the university that its business objectives required having “processing facilities in place sooner than possible” for the Missouri Center of Excellence for Plant Biologics, the new plant at the university. Ventria officials declined to comment further.
