Chinese company produces life-saving blood protein from rice

WUHAN -- A Chinese biopharmaceutical company has realized large-scale production of rice-derived albumin, turning the staple crop into a life-saving medicine that is usually extracted from human blood.

Medical scientists said the breakthrough will help alleviate China's shortage of human serum albumin (HSA). HSA is a blood product vital in the treatment of a number of medical conditions, including hemorrhage and cancers, but its production has long been hampered by the limited supply of healthy people's blood.

Healthgen Biotechnology, based in Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province, said through genetic engineering technology, it can use a bag of rice (25 kg) to generate an amount of HSA equivalent to the content of five liters of plasma.

"We use the rice as a bioreactor, or more plainly, a protein production workshop. We implant human genes into the rice plant to produce HSA and other proteins," said Yang Daichang, chairman of Healthgen Biotechnology.

"Currently, our annual production capacity can reach 10 tonnes of HSA stock solution. Once the new factory starts operations in 2026, the combined annual production capacity of both factories will reach 130 tonnes, which is expected to replace about 25 percent of the HSA imported from abroad," Yang said.

According to Yang, China produced and imported more than 1,000 tonnes of HSA in 2024, with imports accounting for over 69 percent.

This achievement is the result of 19 years of research. The HSA product developed using this technology has completed Phase III of its clinical trials, and is expected to pass the new drug appraisal by the National Medical Products Administration in June 2025.

The company has partnered with over 40 top-tier hospitals nationwide in conducting clinical trials. The results of Phase III clinical trials showed that "the efficacy of the company's rice-derived human serum albumin is equivalent to that of plasma-derived protein," according to the company.