Kingston, Ontario, Canaada
November, 16, 2011
Performance Plants Inc. (“PPI”), a leading global agricultural biotechnology provider, and Biocentury Transgene (China) Co. Ltd. (“Biocentury”), signed a commercial license agreement, giving Biocentury the exclusive rights for PPI's Heat and Drought Tolerance Technology (“HDT™”) in cotton in China. The agreement was signed on November 10th in Shenzhen, China.
With this agreement, Biocentury will be able to incorporate PPI's ground-breaking HDT™ technology into their market-leading Bt-cotton seeds in China. This is a mutually beneficial agreement as it will help to enhance the competitiveness of Biocentury in product offering and also facilitate the commercialization process of technologies that are discovered and validated through PPI's robust gene-based technology development.
This agreement is yet another successful example of PPI’s business and commercialization development strategies of the company’s suite of leading technologies. PPI recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Shaanxi Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center (SHRRC) of China at the Fourth China-Canada-Israel Roundtable on Agri-Innovation at the CAF2011 in Yangling, Shaanxi Province of China on November 5th, 2011. This MOU comes shortly after the company signed a commercial licensing agreement in corn and a four year R&D agreement for rice and soybean with a leading Chinese agricultural company, Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co. Ltd. (DBN).
"Biocentury is the clear leader in the Chinese cotton seed industry and they have a proven track record of bringing innovative biotechnologies to the market places in China and south Asian countries. I am delighted with this technology and product commercialization partnership, and truly believe that this is an exciting starting point for rapid development of a new generation of high performance cotton seeds for the farmers in this country", said Dr. Yafan Huang, President & Chief Scientific Officer of PPI.
"China is the world's largest cotton producer with over 5 million hectares of cotton. However, cotton yield in the country has been severely limited by environmental and climate factors such as heat and drought. Collaboration with Performance Plants will enable us to add PPI's new breakthrough heat and drought dual stress tolerance technology to our elite Bt-cotton germplasm, resulting in a series of superior yielding cotton varieties that will benefit cotton growers throughout the country", said Dr. Yasheng Yang, President & CEO of Biocentury.
Performance Plants Inc. is a global leader in discovery and development of second-generation agricultural biotechnologies. The company's patented technologies enhanced seed yields and weatherproof food and non-food biofuel crops through periods of drought and heat stress resulting in a more abundant, consistent and cost-effective harvests for farmers, and feedstock suppliers. The company has a robust gene-discovery pipeline and has licensed multiple breakthrough technologies to many worlds’ leading seed companies. The privately-held Canadian company is headquartered with R&D facilities in Kingston, Ontario.
Based in Shenzhen, China, Biocentury is a fully integrated ag-biotech and seed company combining innovation and advanced technology to help farmers in China and other south Asian countries to produce more and better quality agricultural products. Formed in 1998 around the Chinese invention of Fusion Bt technology, Biocentury has developed from a Bt technology provider to a fully integrated seed market leader of cotton with its own ag-biotech R&D center, cotton breeding stations, cotton seed production and processing centres and marketing and sales centres throughout the three major cotton segments in China.
Topics
Species
