The tobacco plant is also used for drug manufacturing. For example, rabies virus antibodies are conducting research to grow in transgenic tobacco plants.
About 50,000 people die each year from fury, almost all in developing territories. Rabies treatment is done by human or horse antibodies, but these drugs are expensive, so research on transgenic plants that produce these antibodies has gained strength, as it is a cheaper way to obtain antibodies.
Human antibodies obtained in tobacco plants have shown good results in tests carried out to date with cell cultures and hamsters containing the rabies virus.