March 17, 2010

Evogene and Biogemma licenses drought tolerance genes for corn

Evogene Ltd. and Biogemma SAS announced the signing of a licensing agreement for the development and commercialisation by Biogemma of hybrid corn lines, displaying improved yield and drought tolerance.

The improved corn lines will incorporate certain Evogene discovered genes which have been jointly evaluated by the parties through a collaboration initiated in 2006. Under the newly-signed licensing agreement, Biogemma receives worldwide exclusive commercialisation rights to the genes for corn; financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Pursuant to the earlier 2006 joint research agreement, corn lines incorporating various Evogene discovered genes were validated by Biogemma and Evogene in field trials in the USA and Israel during 2008 and 2009.

Biogemma CEO Pascual Perez stated, "We were pleased to see that the results of Evogene's leads confirmed our interest in Evogene's discovered genes for our major target crop: corn. We are also very satisfied with the efficient research collaboration that has been established by the two companies and which allowed us to rapidly finalise this important Proof of Concept. Under the newly signed agreement and commercial license, we will now focus our efforts on developing the improved corn product for the benefits of our seed company shareholders."

Evogene president and CEO Ofer Haviv stated, "Improved plant yield and drought tolerance are perhaps the most critical needs in today's worldwide agriculture, and as such are key targets for Evogene's ag-bio trait programme."