2007-07-03 | permalink

GM giants pair up to do battle

Monsanto is making a bid to dominate commercialized plant biotech’s second decade. In March, it announced a $1.5 billion collaboration deal with BASF, of Ludwigshafen, Germany. The arrangement promises to be the anchor for much of Monsanto’s ongoing R&D, including the introduction of complex second-generation traits to counter drought tolerance, an issue of global importance to agriculture. Indeed, the BASF deal sets the scene for the next ten years of plant biotech, say crop industry analysts. The scale of the R&D cooperation poses a challenge to Monsanto’s main rivals in the genetically modified (GM) crop business—DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred, in Des Moines, Iowa, and Basel-based Syngenta.

• Nature Biotechnology, UK: GM giants pair up to do battle
• Food Navigator, France: DuPont closer to launch of new GM corn
• DuPont, USA: DuPont meets regulatory milestones for Optimum GAT trait in corn