Biotech Co.* |
Agbiotech Partner/Institution | Type/Product Area | Terms/Details (Date) |
| | |||
Agrisoma |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
Collaboration to use Agrisoma's ACE System, a gene delivery and expression technology, with Dow plant systems |
The deal, focused on animal health, includes up-front and research funding for Agrisoma, as well as potential milestones and royalties (9/29) |
Amarillo |
Biovet Inc. (Japan) |
Oral interferon treatment for rotavirus in cattle |
Biovet said the product was approved in Japan; Amarillo, which holds distribution rights outside Japan, will get royalties on sales in Japan (7/22) |
Aqua Bounty |
Recaicine Farmaceutica (Chile) |
Deal to discover and develop vaccines, antimicrobials and diagnostics targeting shrimp and salmon diseases |
ABT will develop products to be distributed to the South American market by Recaicine; they also will create regional diagnostic centers in South America; Recaicine will fund development and make milestone payments (7/6) |
AspenBio Inc. |
Washington University |
AspenBio licensed exclusive rights to technology in the area of animal health reproduction |
AspenBio will apply the technology to improving fertility in mammals; the work centers on modified reproductive hormones; terms were not disclosed (5/21) |
Bayer |
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia) |
Bayer got access to RNAi gene-silencing technology for use in certain major crops |
Bayer gained a worldwide license to develop, market and sell certain crop plant varieties under undisclosed terms (4/27) |
Cambria |
Syngenta Ltd. (Switzerland) |
Three-year collaboration to develop new insecticides |
Syngenta will fund work and provide certain resources; Cambria will use its technology to elucidate the mechanism of action of compounds supplied by Syngenta; the deal follows a pilot project between the companies (7/19) |
Cellectis SA* |
BASF Plant Sciences GmbH (Germany) |
Expanded deal on use of Cellectis' Meganuclease I- SceI for the deletion/excision of nucleotide sequences in plants |
The May 2003 deal was expanded to further crops of interest to BASF; terms of the deal were not disclosed (2/25) |
Ceres Inc.* |
Japan Tobacco Inc. (Japan) |
Ceres got a license to a transformation tool for commercializing plants and plant- based products |
Ceres licensed the PureIntro product; terms were not disclosed (4/22) |
Ceres Inc.* |
Monsanto Co. and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. (unit of DuPont) |
The three companies agreed to share data on the genomic sequence of corn |
Those data, along with sequences already in the public domain, will be hosted at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center; data will be accessible through the National Corn Growers Association website (3/15) |
Chromatin Inc.* |
Cibus Genetics LLC* |
Partnership to generate canola plants containing mini- chromosomes |
Cibus will regenerate cells containing Chromatin's mini-chromosome technology and develop them into mature plants; terms were not disclosed (1/21) |
Chromatin |
National Research Council Canada Plant Biotechnology Institute |
Partnership to generate canola plants containing mini-chromosomes |
The NRC will regenerate cells containing Chromatin's mini-chromosome technology and develop them into mature plants; the deal mirrors one made with Cibus Genetics LLC (1/21) |
CompleGen |
DuPont Crop Protection |
CompleGen got access to a chemical library in exchange for a series of its XenoGene assays |
DuPont got rights to certain assays and all compounds discovered with the assays in agricultural applications; CompleGen has rights in pharmaceuticals; the deal extends a relationship between the companies (9/24) |
Crucell NV |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture of Merck & Co. Inc. and Aventis SA, now Sanofi-Aventis) |
License agreement for the use of Crucell's PER.C6 technology for development of veterinary vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease |
Crucell will receive an up-front payment and annual maintenance fees, as well as potential milestone payments and sales royalties (10/18) |
Crucell NV |
Israeli government |
Crucell's West Nile virus vaccine for geese was approved in Israel |
The vaccine was developed using Crucell's PER.C6 technology in collaboration with the Israeli Kimron Veterinary Institute (6/3) |
Crucell NV |
Pfizer Inc. |
Crucell granted Pfizer an exclusive license to its West Nile virus vaccine for horses |
Crucell gets an up-front license fee and annual fees, as well as potential milestones and royalties on sales of the vaccine (1/13) |
Diversa Corp. |
Syngenta AG (Switzerland) |
Agreement to continue and expand their collaboration in the area of animal feed enzymes |
Syngenta can continue the deal in exchange for an exclusivity fee and continued R&D funding; Zymetrics, their animal feed enzymes joint venture, will be managed by Syngenta; they also will collaborate on research of other enzymes, and for certain antibody and other biopharma products (7/27) |
Diversa Corp. |
Bayer Animal Health |
Collaboration to develop and market products to prevent infectious diseases in fish |
They will complete development of micro-bially produced vaccines for aquaculture previously developed by a Bayer venture; the product would be manufactured by Diversa and sold by Bayer; the companies intend later to explore additional opportunities (1/13); they launched the Bayovac salmonid rickettsial septicemia vaccine in Chile to prevent SRS in farmed salmon (9/30) |
Entercel Ltd.* |
University of Texas |
Entercel licened technology that adjusts a cell's ability to resist foreign compounds it encounters |
The technology will be studied for its ability to reduce the amount of herbicide or fungicide used; it also could have applicability for drugs (4/26) |
Evogene Ltd.* |
Mertec LLC |
Collaboration for development and marketing of soybean seeds with improved traits |
Newly developed traits from Evogene will be used in soybean varieties developed by Mertec, which will market any resulting products; terms were not disclosed (11/16) |
Evogene Ltd.* |
Zeraim Gedera (Israel) |
Collaboration to jointly develop and sell salt-tolerant tomato rootstocks and seed varieties |
The deal includes development of tomato lines tolerant to high salinity levels; Zeraim will be responsible for breeding, producing the seed and marketing the developed varieties; terms were not disclosed (9/20) |
Evogene Ltd.* |
CIRAD (French agricultural research center) |
Collaboration for the development of abiotic stress-tolerant cotton |
The work will include introduction into cotton of Evogene gene constructs; each party will be free to use the resulting product in certain territories and partnerships (6/9) |
Evolutionary |
RiceTec Inc. |
Collaboration to identify the natural genes controlling yields in rice |
RiceTec will have exclusive rights to use resulting products in its hybrid breeding program; terms were not disclosed (9/28) |
Genaissance |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Agreement to determine the distribution of known bovine SNPs in different types of beef and dairy cattle, and to construct and validate assays for those SNPs |
Genaissance is working with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in the deal; ARS then will make assays available to trace the origin and/or parentage of cattle; separately, Genaissance got a USDA contract to conduct genotyping services to determine the susceptibility of sheep to scrapie (10/6) |
GeneSeek Inc.* |
A2 Corp. Ltd. (New Zealand) |
GeneSeek got a contract to provide the DNA genotyping needed for production of A2 milk in North America |
A2 milk essentially is free of the A1 form of the protein beta-casein; terms of the contract were not disclosed (1/22) |
GenoMed Inc. |
Italy's National Institutes of Health |
Collaboration to test angiotensin II inhibitors to treat avian influenza in poultry |
The Italian NIH will fund and develop the product, and be responsible for finding a commercial partner; GenoMed would get 30% of any revenues (7/13) |
GenVec Inc. |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
GenVec and the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA will conduct research to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease |
Under a one-year deal, GenVec will use its adenovector technology to deliver antiviral compounds shown by ARS to stimulate the immune system in livestock and protect against the disease; the deal was valued at $300,000 (9/1) |
Imugene Ltd. |
Federal government of Australia |
Imugene received a A$0.25M (US$0.19M) Biotechnology Innovation Fund grant |
The funds will support development of an avian influenza vaccine based on its adeno-viral delivery technology (11/4) |
Imugene Ltd. |
University of Adelaide (Australia) |
Imugene got license options to extend its pig Receptor Mimic Technology to other species, except humans |
Products for gastrointestinal diseases are expected to be developed for cattle and chickens initially; the company and university formed a company, BioMimic Ltd., to be licensor of the technology in animal applications (9/16) |
Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group |
China Agricultural University |
Kiwa licensed a patent that covers six species of bacillus that have been tested as bio-fertilizers |
Kiwa also formed a collaboration with the research institution to form a center that will include research institutions and U.S. universities (4/15) |
Locus |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
Collaboration in agro-chemicals to discover and develop small molecules to to treat fungal targets identified by Dow |
Locus potentially could earn milestone and royalty payments in the deal; it also will have an exclusive option to human therapeutic applications (11/16) |
MorphoSys |
Novoplant GmbH* (Germany) |
Novoplant received a license to develop and sell therapeutic antibodies as feed components for use in veterinary medicine |
Novoplant will pay an access fee to use the MorphoSys HuCAL Gold technology, as well as an annual license fee and potential milestones and royalties (7/14) |
Norak |
BASF (Germany) |
Norak will use its Transfluor technology for discovery of active ingredients against BASF GPCR targets |
BASF would use compounds from the screening for crop-protection products; Norak will get technology-access and screening fees, as well as potential milestones and royalties (8/11) |
Norak |
Cropsolution Inc.* |
Agreement under which Cropsolution is buying subsets of Norak's small- molecule compound library |
Cropsolution will use the selected compounds in its agriculture discovery program; terms were not disclosed (2/11) |
NovaDel |
Velcera Pharmaceuticals Inc.* |
Velcera got exclusive worldwide rights to lingual spray drug delivery technology from NovaDel |
Velcera will use the technology to develop veterinary medicines, initially for the pet market; NovaDel got an equity stake in Velcera along with an up-front technology fee and potential milestone and royalty payments (9/14) |
Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp. |
Health Canada |
Nymox licensed rights and technology for the treatment of E. coli bacteria in cattle |
The license agreement is part of a collaboration with the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses in Ontario (10/7) |
Orchid |
UK government |
Orchid received a contract to provide genotyping services to sheep farmers in the UK |
Orchid's scrapie genotyping contract was renewed for two years under the UK's National Scrapie Plan (6/17) |
Orion |
North Carolina State University |
They extended agreement for the sequencing of the tobacco genome |
Orion's payments are more than doubled under its subcontract for part of the $17.6M provided to NCSU by Philip Morris USA as part of the Tobacco Genome Initiative (9/8) |
Orion |
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
Companies provided the laboratory- sequence datafor ryegrass, which will be used to annotate publicly available sequence data |
The goal is to improve traits of forage and cereal crops; results will be made available to researchers through the Gramene database (7/6) |
Perlegen |
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (Germany) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies |
Collaboration to identify the DNA variation in 20 strains of Arabidopsis thaliana, a reference plant from the mustard family |
The work is being funded by a grant from the Max Planck Society; they plan to make public the resulting sequences and single nucleotide polymorphisms found in the strains (10/5) |
SemBioSys |
Dow AgroSciences LLC |
Collaboration to apply SemBioSys' technology to a Dow vaccine for animals |
SemBioSys will receive undisclosed up-front and milestone payments in the deal, which will involve use of its Stratosome Biologics System (5/11) |
Sequenom |
U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Collaboration to develop and validate a genetic marker panel for swine identification |
Expansion of the multiyear deal also includes further development of a beef carcass-quality panel assay; terms of the deal were not disclosed (7/19) |
Transgene SA |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture between Merck & Co. Inc. and Aventis SA, now |
Collaboration to develop products for animal-health indications using Transgene's vector platform |
Transgene will get research payments; Merial has rights to gain an exclusive worldwide license to resulting products (6/15) |
Vical Inc. |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture between Merck & Co. Inc. and Aventis SA, now Sanofi-Aventis) |
Merial got rights to use DNA- delivery technology in a vaccine to protect certain companion animals against a particular type of cancer |
Vical gets an undisclosed up-front payment, as well as potential milestones and royalties; a prior deal between them is on developing vaccines to prevent infectious diseases in animals (5/26) |
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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. | |||
AMEX = American Stock Exchange; ASX = Australian Stock Exchange; FSE = Frankfurt Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. | |||
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