Evogene Announces Positive Results in its Novel Mode-of-Action Herbicide Program
February 27 2018 - 7:00AM
Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN)) (TASE:EVGN), a leading biotechnology
company developing novel products for life science markets through
the use of a unique Computational Predictive Biology (CPB)
platform, announced today that its Ag-Chemical division achieved
positive results in its internal novel Mode-of-Action (MoA)
herbicide program with multiple ‘families’ of Evogene predicted
chemical compounds demonstrating improved herbicidal effectiveness
in lab and greenhouse experiments.
Herbicides are weed killing chemicals, part of
the general pesticide and crop protection market. The market size
attributed to herbicides reached $21B in 20161. Herbicide
protection plays an important role in global food security and, for
instance, without herbicide protection approximately 20% of the
global crop yield of wheat would be lost2. Current herbicide
products are based on MoA’s introduced to market over 30 years ago,
while weed resistance to these solutions is globally on the rise,
creating a growing need for a novel MoA herbicide.
Evogene initiated its herbicide program in 2015,
and last year disclosed the identification of several novel
herbicide targets, representing a new MoA, and over 10 inhibiting
chemical compounds demonstrating initial weed-killing
effectiveness. Following these achievements, the Ag-Chemical
division, using the CPB platform, predicted and synthesized
chemical ‘families’. A chemical ‘family’ includes chemical
compounds which are related to a specific, previously discovered
and positively validated chemical compounds. Today's announcement
discloses that in lab and greenhouse experiments, these chemical
‘families’ showed various levels of weed-killing effectiveness for
individual members of each ‘family’, in some cases significantly in
excess of the initial chemical compound.
During 2018, these ‘families’ of chemical
compounds will continue to undergo additional optimization for
advancement to the next phase in the herbicidal product pipeline.
In parallel, Evogene continues to establish biological proof that
these chemical compounds indeed inhibit the identified novel
herbicide targets, representing a novel MoA.
Eran Kosover, EVP and GM, Ag-Chemicals
stated: “These positive results are an important step for
achieving our goal of developing multiple new modes-of-action
herbicide solutions based on our biology-driven
computational-chemistry approach. Achieving chemical ‘families’
with varying level of efficacy around an initial chemical compound
indicates a strong basis for further optimization toward a
candidate that meets commercialization standards, as well as
creates a basis for solid IP protection. We intend to further
advance our internal pipeline, and also enter into additional
collaborations with leading Ag-Chemical companies.”
Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO
stated: “I am excited with the results we disclosed today,
as they represent multiple validations of the broad applicability
and accuracy of our unique CPB platform’s ability to produce novel
discoveries, and to create a robust pipeline in new fields of focus
in a short time. Through the use of the CPB platform we were able
to improve herbicidal effectiveness, with the identification of
chemical ‘families’ that serve as the basis for progressing to the
next stage.”
About
Evogene:
Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN) (TASE:EVGN) is a leading
biotechnology company developing novel products for major life
science markets through the use of a unique predictive biology
platform incorporating deep scientific understandings and advanced
computational technologies. This platform is utilized by the
Company to discover and develop innovative ag-chemical,
ag-biological and ag-seed products (GM and non GM), and by two
subsidiaries; Evofuel, focused on castor seeds, and Biomica,
focused on human microbiome therapeutics. Through its
collaborations with world-leading agricultural companies such as
BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta, Evogene has licensed
genes, small molecules and microbes to partners under milestone and
royalty bearing agreements. For more information, please visit
www.evogene.com
This press release contains "forward-looking
statements" relating to future events. These statements
may be identified by words such as "may", "could",
“expects”, "intends", “anticipates”,
“plans”, “believes”, “scheduled”, “estimates” or words of
similar meaning. Such statements are based on current
expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions,
describe opinions about future events, involve certain
risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are
not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future
results, performance or achievements of Evogene may differ
materially from what is expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of
factors, many of which beyond Evogene's
control, including, without limitation, those risk
factors contained in Evogene’s reports filed with the
appropriate securities authority. Evogene disclaims any
obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements
to reflect future events or developments or changes in
expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.
1 Phillips McDougall
2 According to industry estimates
Contact: Nir ZalikIR/PR
managerE: IR@evogene.comT: (+972)-8-931-1963
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