Biotech Co.* |
Agbiotech |
Type/Product |
Terms/Details |
AgraQuest |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
AgraQuest was awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant for development of a biological fumigant |
The two-year, $296,000 grant will be used for a product based on the fungus Muscodor albus that is expected to have multiple applications in post-harvest and soil-borne diseases (1/4) |
ArrayXpress |
North Carolina Biotechnology Center |
The center awarded Array-Xpress a $150,000 research loan |
ArrayXpress will use the loan to develop a diagnostic test for a swine disease (3/8) |
Arysta |
Bayer CropScience (unit of Bayer AG) |
They entered agreements that expand existing collaboration |
Arysta acquired amitraz (Mitac), an araricide and insecticide; got a license to market the fungicide fluoxastrobin in certain areas; and got a license to co- market deltamethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide, in the U.S. (4/27) |
Athenix Corp.* |
Iowa Corn Promotion Board |
Research cooperation to explore opportunities of applying innovative technologies to corn |
The board partnered with Athenix on the work under undisclosed terms (2/17) |
Arcadia |
National Institutes of Health |
Arcadia received a grant to develop soybeans with desired levels of soy isoflavones |
Arcadia will use its Tilling screening technology in the effort; terms of the grant were not disclosed (10/31) |
Arcadia |
National Institutes of Health |
Arcadia and WSU received a Small Business Technology Transfer grant related to research on wheat |
They will research lines of wheat with reduced celiac disease-causing proteins (10/5) |
Arcadia |
Monsanto Co. |
Monsanto licensed rights to use Arcadia's nitrogen use efficiency technology in canola |
Arcadia is entitled to an up-front payment and potential milestone and royalty payments in the deal; Monsanto gets global rights (9/20) |
Chlorogen |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
They entered deals to use chloroplast transformation technology in Dow's animal health and agricultural biotechnology businesses |
The technology is used for expressing foreign genes in plant cells; one deal focuses on animal health vaccines; the other is on expressing Dow's traits in agricultural crops; terms were not disclosed (9/16) |
Chromatin |
University of of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
They launched a program to accelerate development of mini-chromosome technology for the delivery of multiple traits in corn |
The partnership leverages expertise in corn breeding and genetics at the university and Chromatin's mini- chromosome technology for improving characteristics in corn; terms were not disclosed (2/8) |
CompleGen |
DuPont Crop Protection |
CompleGen will use its XenoGene system to discover the targets of active compounds identified by DuPont |
XenoGene uses a reverse chemical genomics approach; it is the fourth deal between the companies; terms were not disclosed (5/11) |
Cryptome |
Dairy Australia |
Three-year deal on research to discover pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals in milk proteins |
Dairy Australia is supporting work at Cryptome to identify and characterize proteins and fragments of proteins with potential health benefits (11/9) |
CytImmune |
Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health (Germany) |
BI licensed rights to use CytImmune's drug delivery technology for veterinary applications |
The technology will be applied to development of tumor-targeted cancer drugs for the veterinary market; terms were not disclosed (2/16) |
Cytos |
Pfizer Inc. |
Pfizer entered an option agreement on two Cytos Immunodrug products for animal health applications |
Pfizer also has first right to negotiate on other products for animal health; Cytos gets an up-front payment and potential milestone and royalty payments (1/6) |
Evogene Ltd.* |
Faculty of Agriculture at Hebrew University (Israel) |
Collaboration to jointly develop tomato varieties with improved taste and aroma |
They will pool technologies and expertise in the effort, terms of which were not disclosed (5/24) |
Exelixis Inc. |
GenOptera LLC (joint venture of Exelixis and Bayer CropScience) |
They are ending early a venture formed in 2000 to develop insecticides; Bayer is acquiring Exelixis' 40% stake in GenOptera |
Bayer will have rights to resulting discoveries in agriculture; Exelixis will have rights in all other fields; Exelixis will get an early termination fee of about $10.9M (4/1) |
Genaissance |
Biotronics Ltd. (Cyprus) |
Genaissance will provide high- throughput genotyping services to Biotronics |
Biotronics is working under a government contract to establishing a breeding program in sheep that confers resistance to scrapie (8/23) |
Genaissance |
Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food (Greece) |
Genaissance will provide high- throughput sample handling and genotyping services |
The work under a deal with Antisel A. Selidis Bros. SA is for establishing a breeding program in sheep that confers resistance to scrapie (8/11) |
Genaissance |
Monsanto Co. and the Agricultural Research Service |
Collaboration to develop technology for more accurate and efficient soybean breeding |
The firms and the USDA's ARS will map the genome of the soybean and make the data publicly available; terms of the deal were not disclosed (3/9) |
Genaissance |
Sygen International plc (UK) |
Collaboration under which Genaissance will use its high- throughput genotyping capabilities |
The focus is to accelerate Sygen's genetic discoveries in three meat animal species; terms of the deal were not disclosed (12/2/04) |
GangaGen |
Elanco Animal Health (unit of Eli Lilly and Co.) |
Deal to jointly develop and sell phage-based products for the control of dangerous bacteria |
A goal of the project is to eliminate pathogenic E. coli in cattle before the animal is processed for food; terms of the deal were not disclosed (9/14) |
Genedata AG* |
Bayer CropScience (unit of Bayer AG) |
They extended for three years a collaboration in agrochemical research |
The deal includes licenses for the AgroLead edition of Genedata Phylosopher as well as for Genedata Expressionist technology (6/9) |
GeoPharma |
Dechra Pharmaceuticals plc (UK) |
Worldwide marketing deal on GeoPharma's levothyroxine liquid and tablets for animal health applications |
GeoPharma subsidiary Belcher Pharmaceuticals gets a $500,000 up-front payment; they will equally share profits from the product, which is used to treat hypothyroidism in dogs (2/17) |
Icoria Inc. |
Monsanto Co. |
Monsanto acquired Icoria assets related to the field of transgenic traits for agriculture applications |
Icoria gets $6.75M in cash, undisclosed installment and milestone payments, plus additional considerations; the companies have been researching the area for six years under an existing deal; a number of Icoria employees will join Monsanto (3/24) |
Icoria Inc. |
DuPont Crop Protection |
Icoria will screen a DuPont chemical library to identify compounds that improve crop productivity |
The goal is to increase nutrient uptake and tolerance to environmental stress; Icoria gets an undisclosed up-front payment and potential milestone and royalty payments (2/1) |
IDEXX |
European Commission |
The company's HerdChek test for postmortem detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was approved in Europe |
The EIA test uses Seprion ligand technology from Microsens Biotechnologies Ltd.; approvals in individual countries were expected to follow (2/18) |
iDiverse Inc.* |
University of Nebraska at Lincoln |
iDiverse licensed exclusive rights to UNL's transgenic plant technology; they also agreed to collaborate on development |
The technology may provide plants with resistance to a range of diseases and environmental stresses; terms of the deal were not disclosed (7/20) |
ImmuCell |
Pfizer Animal Health |
Development and marketing deal for Mast Out, a Nisin-based treatment for mastitis in lactating dairy cows |
ImmuCell gets an up-front payment along with potential milestone and royalty payments; Pfizer gains exclusive worldwide rights (12/21/04) |
Large Scale |
Growers Research Group LLC |
GRG licensed rights to use LSBC's Geneware plant gene expression technology |
GRG, a company whose members are a consortium of California agribusiness concerns, plans to discover new approaches to crop protection under the exclusive, worldwide research license; it also has an option to gain commercial rights (11/22) |
Lynx |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Lynx's Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing technology will be used in a project focused on small RNAs in rice |
University of Delaware faculty members got a grant for the work from the USDA; resulting data will be made publicly available (2/24) |
Lynx |
National Science Foundation |
Lynx will provide genome-wide transcriptome sequencing services on oyster samples |
The work is being done under a research grant the NSF awarded to University of Southern California researchers for work on genetics and physiology of oysters (1/31) |
Meridian |
Synbiotics Corp. |
Deal under which Synbiotics will distribute the veterinary products of Meridian subsidiary Viral Antigens Inc. |
Synbiotics immediately began marketing VAI's line of pseudorabies virus antibody test kits; they intend to explore additional veterinary diagnostic product opportunities (3/16) |
MerLion |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
Collaboration to identify candidates for new agrochemical agents |
MerLion brings its collection of natural product samples, natural product chemistry and bioprocessing expertise to the collaboration, terms of which were not disclosed (3/17) |
Modular |
Monsanto Co. |
Three-year deal under which Monsanto gained an exclusive license to use MGI's protein optimization platform in agricultural applications |
The deal includes the establishment of a research facility in Cambridge, Mass., where business and research headquarters will be relocated; terms of the deal were not disclosed (3/14) |
Orion |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Orion and North Carolina State University were awarded a two-year, $1.59M grant |
The project is to determine the gene sequence of parasitic nematode worms that cause human disease and destruction of crops; resulting data will be released to the public (12/8/04) |
ParAllele |
Dairy Cooperative Research Centre (Australia) |
Collaboration to screen the DNA of more than 1,500 elite Australian dairy bulls |
Technology from ParAllele and Affymetrix will be used for a high- ensity genome-wide scan; terms of the deal were not disclosed (11/9) |
PRB |
Vietnam Department of Animal Health |
Vietnam officials will test an animal version of PRB's antiviral product on their poultry flocks |
The effort is part of a multinational avian influenza research collaboration that includes institutions in Hong Kong, China and Thailand (7/8) |
PR |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture of Merck and Co. Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis Group) |
Collaboration to develop animal health products using PRP's sustained-release formulation and manufacturing technologies |
Merial has exclusive rights to resulting products; terms were not disclosed; Merial already distributes PRP's DuraLease product to the North American beef industry (3/16) |
Sequenom |
MetaMorphix Inc.* |
MMI will use use Sequenom's MassARRAY technology in field trials of DNA-based animal predictive diagnostic tools |
The deal supports an agreement MMI has with Cargill Inc.; the effort with Sequenom focuses on DNA screening and selection in livestock and companion animals (11/7) |
Sangamo |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
Dow got rights to access Sangamo's zinc finger DNA- binding protein technology for use in plants and plant cell cultures |
The deal is exclusive in plant agriculture and industrial products, and nonexclusive in animal health and biopharmaceutical products produced in plants; Sangamo could get $27.5M in the first three years of the deal and up to $53M overall, plus mile- stone and royalty payments (10/5) |
Scynexis Inc.* |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture of Merck and Co. Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis Group) |
Collaboration under which Scynexis will be the primary animal health discovery research partner for Merial |
The agreement could run up to 15 years and be worth up to $150M for Scynexis, which also could get milestone payments and sales royalties in the deal (9/29) |
Sygen |
Genus plc (UK; AIM:GNS) |
They reached an agreement under which Genus would acquire Sygen for £187M (US$322M) in cash |
Sygen applies quantitative genetics and biotechnology to animal breeding; Genus focuses on bovine genetics (10/28) |
Xpention |
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
Xpention got exclusive rights to technology for detecting cancer based on the p65 tumor marker |
Xpention initially plans to use the technology to develop an immunological test for detecting cancer in canines; the technology also has applicability in humans; Xpention would pay royalties on resulting sales (4/27) |
Vical Inc. |
Aqua Health Ltd. (Canada; affiliate of Novartis Animal Health) |
Aqua Health got approval in Canada to market a vaccine for farm-raised salmon |
The APEX-IHN vaccine, based on Vical's plasmid DNA delivery technology, was approved for use against infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (7/19) |
Notes: | |||
This chart contains information on new and revised corporate agreements, as well as other actions, involving agricultural or animal biotechnology. | |||
* Private companies are indicated with an asterisk. | |||
Unless otherwise indicated, shares are traded on the Nasdaq exchange. | |||
ASX = Australian Stock Exchange; LSE = London Stock Exchange; SWX = Swiss Stock Exchange. | |||
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