TRIALS OF A genetically modified potato offering protection against hepatitis B have been hailed as remarkable by scientists, reports The Times.

The GM potato was engineered to make a vaccine that could survive digestion.

Increased levels of antibodies against hepatitis B were seen in 62.5% of volunteers after three doses of “potato vaccine”.

It was scientists from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca, New York, who developed the potato.

The results could mean that edible vaccines could replace jabs for many of the world’s deadliest diseases, according to The Times.

Hepatitis B kills an estimated million people worldwide every year.