INDIANAPOLIS & ST. LOUIS, April 11, 2013- Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences reached new cross-licensing agreements for traits for weed control and insect protection in corn.
Monsanto will license Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist™ Weed Control System herbicide-tolerant trait for use in field corn. Dow AgroSciences will license Monsanto’s third generation corn rootworm technology, Corn Rootworm III, which is presently under development by Monsanto and offers a new mode of action for rootworm control.
According to the seed technology companies, the agreement paves the way for U.S. introduction (pending regulatory approvals) of new, next-generation SmartStax products by the end of the decade.
Under the agreement, Monsanto will represent both parties for joint third-party licensing of the next-generation SmartStax corn to third-party seed companies through its Corn States business. Dow AgroSciences will out-license the rights to the Enlist trait technology, while both parties will retain the right to independently stack additional trait technologies.
These technologies are expected to be introduced in each company’s proprietary germplasm and sold competitively by both companies as next-generation weed and insect control products. According to the announcement, the agreements build on the competitive standard set by SmartStax®* for stacked-trait corn offerings in providing added value for farmers in their ongoing need to secure higher yields despite wide-ranging pressures from damaging pests. This creates the opportunity to bring together for the first time three different modes of action for below-ground insect control in a corn product.
“This agreement takes the outstanding value offered by SmartStax technology to a new level, allowing growers increased flexibility with highly effective new modes of action for weed and insect management,” said Antonio Galindez, Dow AgroSciences president and CEO. “Adding advanced new traits to SmartStax – including our Enlist corn trait – delivers on our company’s business objective of providing better solutions for the growing world.”
“This agreement builds on the success we had with the original SmartStax agreement, showing that as both companies innovate, we’ll continue to bring the best products to farmers,” said Brett Begemann, Monsanto’s president and chief commercial officer.
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