Corn farmers will have choices for more future corn trait technologies, due to cross-licensing agreements announced today by Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences.Highlights include:
• Monsanto’s licensing of Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist Weed Control System herbicide-tolerant trait for use in field corn. The Enlist technology is slated to debut in field corn in 2014, pending regulatory approval. The Enlist system consists of herbicide-trait tolerance for Dow’s new 2,4-D choline formulation, glyphosate, and fop herbicides.
• Dow AgroSciences’ licensing of Monsanto’s third generation corn rootworm technology. Monsanto is presently developing Corn Rootworm III, which offers a new corn rootworm control mode of action. This rootworm technology is slated to debut later this decade, pending regulatory approval.
Officials for these companies says this agreement paves the way for introducing next-generation products that build off the current SmartStax platform, pending regulatory approval. This includes Herculex and Monsanto’s insect resistance and herbicide-tolerance traits. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Under the agreements:
• Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences will license to each other, under royalty-bearing agreements, traits for weed control as well as insect protection in corn.
• Dow AgroSciences will license to Monsanto its proprietary Enlist corn herbicide-tolerant trait on a non-exclusive basis.
• Monsanto will license to Dow its third generation corn rootworm technology, Corn Rootworm III, on a non-exclusive basis.
• The agreement paves the way for U.S. introduction (pending regulatory approvals) of new, next-generation SmartStax products by the end of the decade.
• 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, allowing farmers access to trait technology in brands they prefer.
• Dow AgroSciences will out-license the rights to the Enlist trait technology.
• Both parties will retain the right to independently stack additional trait technologies.
• As currently sold, SmartStax corn includes Dow AgroSciences’ above- and below-ground insect resistance traits, Herculex I and Herculex RW, and glufosinate herbicide tolerance trait; Bayer Crop Sciences’ LibertyLink; and Monsanto’s above- and below-ground insect resistance traits YieldGard VT Rootworm/RR2 and YieldGard VT Pro, as well as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready glyphosate tolerance trait.
