"A country does not have permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests." The same game rules can apply to agrochemical companies. Apart from doing their products' research and development well, agrochemical companies are always seeking cooperation with other distinctive companies for drawing upon benefit from each other. Usually, it's a shortcut for them to incorporate novel or advanced technology into their product line for further development.
The growth of agricultural sciences and technologies gradually makes new demands for crop protection and biotechnology industry. Hence these big agrochemical companies are very active on R&D collaborations in recent years. Takes Bayer CropScience for example, in April of this year, it has entered into an exclusive trait development agreement with KeyGene, a biotech-company headquarted in Netherlands. Both companies will combine their expertise in the fields of protoplast technology and targeted molecular mutagenesis to create novel traits for crop improvement. And then, it announced a global licensing agreement for a canola herbicide tolerance trait with DuPont. In August, Bayer granted Monsanto to combine its Poncho®/VOTiVO® seed treatment technology with Monsanto's Acceleron® Seed Treatment Products for soybeans to provide a revolutionary biological mode of action to help protect soybean growers' crop from nematodes – as well as other pests.
Share with industrial people with your company's success story on R&D collaboration. And how do you think what interest was served by these cooperation?
Evogene Ltd. has signed a multiyear cooperation agreement with DuPont Company subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. to use Evogene's technology to develop soybean varieties that are resistant to the disease soybean rust, caused by a fungal parasite, Phakopsora pachyrhizi. The anti-Phakopsora pachyrhizi market totals $1.5 billion a year, mostly in North and South America. This is the second collaboration agreement between the companies within a month, following a deal to develop dr ...Read more
DuPont Crop Protection (DuPont) and BioLeap, Inc. (BioLeap) have entered into a research collaboration that will use novel molecular design technology developed at BioLeap to discover proprietary compounds for crop protection. Under the agreement, BioLeap will use their proprietary technology in computational fragment-based design to identify compounds aimed at biological targets of interest to DuPont. A team of technical experts from both DuPont and BioLeap will then select compounds for synth ...Read more
DuPont and Plant Sensory Systems have entered into a collaboration to evaluate proprietary genes for increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in corn. Under the agreement, DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred receives an exclusive, worldwide research and commercial license to nitrogen use efficiency genes for corn. This agreement complements Pioneer’s ongoing research related to NUE. Corn products developed using these genes could help growers protect yield while reducing inputs, such as nitro ...Read more
The ScottsMiracle-Gro Company, the world’s largest marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, and Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), a leading global provider of natural products for pest management in the agricultural and water treatment markets, announced an exclusive research and development agreement designed to provide consumers new natural plant protection products. Under terms of the deal, ScottsMiracle-Gro will have access to MBI’s full portfolio of innovative biopes ...Read more
GrassRoots Biotechnology and Monsanto have agreed to extend their existing three-year research collaboration for an additional two years through January 2014. The alliance will build upon the success of the current collaboration, focusing on the design and development of promoters that enable crops to express trait genes that enhance and protect yield. Promoters are segments of DNA that determine when and where a trait gene is expressed. Monsanto is expected to use expression elements source ...Read more
Scientists from Bayer CropScience and the research institute VIB-UGent, Belgium, have started a collaboration to develop crops with higher yields and improved tolerance to stresses such as drought or soil salinity. In a first project, researchers will look at epigenetic differences between different crop varieties as a basis for selection of new characteristics. In a second project, scientists will computationally analyze the genes that are involved in the response of plants to high-stress situa ...Read more
Soybean growers now have access to a revolutionary biological mode of action to help protect their crop from nematodes – as well as other pests – as part of an agreement announced by Bayer CropScience LP and Monsanto Company. Offered with Monsanto’s Acceleron® Seed Treatment Products for soybeans, Poncho®/VOTiVO® seed treatment from Bayer CropScience combines a seed-applied insecticide with a new living-barrier approach to nematode protection. Acceleron Seed Treat ...Read more
INCOTEC Group BV and Plant Health Care, a leading provider of naturally derived products to the agriculture and horticulture industries, announce that they have signed a nonexclusive, multi-year agreement to develop and market Plant Health Care’s Myconate in combination with INCOTEC’s proprietary seed treatment packages. No financial details are disclosed. Plant Health Care will contribute its Myconate technology and introduce its current customers to INCOTEC seed treatments. The tw ...Read more
BASF Crop Protection and Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), the leading Brazilian agricultural research institution, signed an ambitious technical cooperation agreement to develop and bring new agriculture technologies and products to Brazilian growers. The cooperation brings together the expertise and know-how of both partners in the search for untapped agricultural solutions in the areas of biotechnology, genetic improvement, soil fertility and mechanization, plant p ...Read more
Syngenta just announced a partnership with Pasteuria Bioscience Inc., a U.S.-based biotechnology company, to develop bio-nematicide products. The first product the two companies will focus on is a seed treatment to control soybean cyst nematodes (SCN). They hope to launch a SCN product in two years. The two companies will use a naturally occurring soil bacteria called Pasteuria in the new seed treatment and other products. The Pasteuria group of bacteria controls nematodes. Syngenta reports t ...Read more
Bayer CropScience and DuPont announced that they have entered into a global licensing agreement for a canola herbicide tolerance trait. Bayer has licensed its proprietary herbicide tolerance technology, LibertyLink®, to DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred for use in canola (Brassica napus) hybrids. Pioneer will provide Bayer access to certain proprietary juncea (Brassica juncea) genetics. Financial details were not disclosed. "As a result of the agreement, growers will have a broader choic ...Read more
BioLeap, Inc., Ewing, NJ, announced that the company has entered into a research collaboration with Syngenta to apply BioLeap molecular design technology to the discovery of Syngenta crop protection products. Under the agreement, Syngenta Ventures will make an equity investment in BioLeap, and BioLeap will provide molecular designs for the synthesis of compounds aimed at targets of interest in crop protection research. BioLeap's work on these targets will be exclusive to Syngenta. The agreemen ...Read more
Bayer CropScience and KeyGene, a biotech-company headquarted in Wageningen, the Netherlands, announced that they have entered into an exclusive trait development agreement. Both companies will combine their expertise in the fields of protoplast technology and targeted molecular mutagenesis to create novel traits for crop improvement. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. The collaboration will initially focus on the use of KeyGene’s new and proprietary KeyBase® method ...Read more