Freiburg, Germany
May 16, 2000
A collaboration is announced today that will help fight blindness in developing countries through the use of genetically modified rice. The collaboration will help the inventors of ‘Golden Rice’ to deliver their gift of nutritionally-enhanced rice to the developing nations of the world, bringing closer the health benefits for countries where Vitamin A deficiency is the cause of 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness each year.
The inventors of ‘Golden Rice’ have reached an agreement with Greenovation and Zeneca, and are
working with agencies throughout the world to enable the delivery of this technology free-of-charge
for humanitarian purposes in the developing world . This will bring closer the 1982 vision of the
Rockefeller Foundation who stimulated and funded this research into rice varieties which might offer global public health benefits.
Dr. Gary Toenniessen, Director for Food Security at the Rockefeller Foundation, endorsed the
agreement, saying, "this collaboration will speed the process of conducting all appropriate
nutritional and safety testing and obtaining regulatory approvals. The agreement should help assure that ‘Golden Rice’ reaches those people it can help most as quickly as possible. We look forward to following the progress of this agreement as a possible model for other public-private partnerships designed to benefit poor people in developing countries".
The inventors of ‘Golden Rice’, Professor Ingo Protrykus and Dr Peter Beyer, will fulfil their
commitment to give this technology to resource-poor farmers in developing countries, and
contribute to poverty alleviation by increasing nutritional benefit from crops and income generation. They will be supported by Zeneca, which has contributed since 1996 to the EU carotenoid research project of which ‘Golden Rice’ was a part. Other specialist organisations, in Asia and elsewhere, are being requested to assist in the development and free delivery of ‘Golden Rice’.
Zeneca will explore commercial opportunities for sales of ‘Golden Rice’ into the growing market for healthy foods. At the same time, Zeneca will provide regulatory, advisory and research expertise to assist in making ‘Golden Rice’ available in developing countries. ‘Golden Rice’ has the potential to provide massive benefit countering Vitamin A deficiency-related diseases including irreversible blindness.
Dr David Evans, Director of Research and Development at Zeneca, said, "Over the coming years
crop biotechnology will offer consumers a range of significant benefits, and will play an important
role in meeting the nutritional needs of a growing population. The ‘Golden Rice’ programme has the potential to make a major contribution to the health of many millions in the developing world."
Professor Ingo Potrykus said, "Zeneca has been involved with carotenoid research for a number of
years and have demonstrated an awareness and sensitivity to the needs of impoverished people in the developing world. Zeneca will help us to deliver ‘Golden Rice’ more speedily to those that need it most."
The collaborators anticipate that ‘Golden Rice’ will not be available for local planting and consumption until 2003 at the earliest. Company news release
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