Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
February 22, 2010

Hexima Limited (ASX: HXL), has signed two non-exclusive research licenses with Monsanto (NYSE:MON), the company announced today.

Monsanto has obtained a research license and commercial option to Hexima’s Multi-Gene Expression Vehicle (MGEV) technology. MGEV is an enabling technology that can be used to enhance protein expression by inserting multiple copies of a gene into the construct. It can also be used to deliver targeted genes to a plant. Monsanto plans to assess the technology’s effectiveness in facilitating the expression and processing of multiple genes of interest in its core crops.

MGEV represents one of Hexima’s key scientific platforms, along with its disease and insect resistance technologies, said Joshua Hofheimer, Chief Executive Officer for Hexima.
“This agreement, our second MGEV license with a leading multinational agribusiness company, is important to our ongoing efforts to realize the technology’s commercial potential through a broad licensing strategy,” he said. “Monsanto is an excellent partner to evaluate and potentially commercialise the MGEV technology across a range of products.”
Using MGEV to produce multiple proteins in plants could assist plant researchers in developing novel traits for the market and improving the expression and processing of small proteins.

Collaborations with companies like Hexima are key to Monsanto’s research and development strategy, said Steve Padgette, Vice President of Biotechnology for Monsanto.
“Developing the next generation of products that meet growers’ needs for effective and broad-spectrum insect- and weed-control will mean more complex traits and the need to optimize the coordinated expression of multiple genes,” Padgette said. “Hexima’s MGEV technology could help make it easier and faster to achieve such coordination.”

Under the second agreement, Hexima will be able to test two of Monsanto’s proprietary cotton Bt insect-control genes to assist its research into Bt expression and stacking using MGEV and the effect of combining Bt genes with the company’s proprietary proteinase inhibitor genes. The research is part of Hexima’s broader insect-resistance program that is partly funded by a Climate Ready grant from the Australian Federal Government.

“Access to leading genes can be a hurdle for development stage companies, and we are very pleased to be working with Monsanto’s Bt genes to advance our MGEV platform,” Hofheimer said.

Website: http://www.hexima.com.au

Published: February 22, 2010