MPB Cologne is working to turn transgenic potato tubers into a raw-materials production system for antibodies and other proteins. The company hopes partners will provide it with genes for proteins that MPB will produce, extract and purify, then return to partners for end-product development and commercialization. Management thinks its potatoes will be environmentally safer systems than pollinated plants, especially if the firm succeeds in developing a system whereby proteins will be produced in the tubers only after they are harvested and put into oxygen-deprived containers. A pilot-scale field trial is scheduled this year in Canada.

With capital markets depressed and internal R&D growing ever more expensive, biotech and Big Pharma need each other more than ever. But a new wave of skeptical drug partners are forcing humbled biotechs to write deals that minimize risk without driving down the deal's value.