Canada has become the first country to approve a plant-derived vaccine against COVID-19. Vaccines such as those made by Pfizer–BioNTech and Oxford–AstraZeneca do not contain animal products, but animal and human cell cultures can be used to make them. The new vaccine is based on virus-like particles that mimic the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which are grown in a close relative to tobacco plants, Nicotiana benthamiana. Covifenz was developed by Canadian biopharmaceutical company Medicago, which is partly owned by cigarette-maker Philip Morris International.