WILMINGTON, Del.
and REHOVOT, Israel,
Aug. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), a
leading pure-play agriculture company, and Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ,
TASE: EVGN), a leading biotechnology company developing novel
products for life science markets, announced today that Corteva
will make an investment in Evogene's agriculture biologicals
subsidiary, Lavie Bio (Lavie). The
transaction includes the exchange of all shares of Corteva's wholly
owned subsidiary Taxon Biosciences along with an equity
investment by Corteva in Lavie. As consideration for the Taxon
Biosciences shares and equity investment, Corteva will be
issued approximately 30 percent of Lavie's equity while Evogene
will hold approximately 70 percent of Lavie's equity.
Taxon Biosciences' capabilities are expected to provide
significant synergetic value to Lavie and accelerate the
development of Lavie's products. Taxon Biosciences' assets,
including a large microbial collection and product candidate
pipeline, will be integrated into Lavie's pipeline, accelerating
Lavie's 'biology driven design' approach and its product
development.
Corteva's investment in Lavie will also provide to Corteva
certain rights with respect to Lavie's corn and soy pipelines,
allowing Lavie to benefit from Corteva's world-leading corn and
soybean market access.
Susanne Wasson, Crop Protection
Business Platform President for Corteva Agriscience said, "This
transaction demonstrates Corteva's ongoing commitment to bringing
to market new and differentiated technologies for our customers."
Wasson continued, "We are pleased to collaborate with Lavie Bio – a leader in the field of
agriculture biologicals – as we continue to focus on accelerating
commercialization of customer-centered innovation in this
high-growth sector."
Ofer Haviv, President & CEO
of Evogene and Chairman of the Board of Lavie Bio stated, "We are extremely pleased
with the combined Taxon acquisition and equity investment by
Corteva, a world leader in the agricultural market, following close
to two years of a co-development collaboration. By providing
both additional complementary technologies along with potential
go-to-market pathways, we believe this transaction will
significantly enhance Lavie's capabilities for the development and
commercialization of next generation agriculture biological
products."
Ido Dor, Lavie Bio's CEO, stated,
"We are very pleased that Corteva, a world leading agricultural
company, continues to partner with Lavie. I am confident that with
Corteva's leadership in agriculture innovation, and the
complementary capabilities which we will add through the
acquisition of Taxon Biosciences, Lavie is well positioned to
achieve its mission of improving food quality, agricultural
sustainability and productivity through the introduction of next
generation microbiome-based agriculture biological products."
Agriculture biologicals include externally-applied products
derived from natural, biological sources such as microbials,
macrobials, biochemicals and minerals to optimize overall plant
health. Agriculture biological products include bio-stimulants, for
maximizing plant yield and durability, as well as bio-pesticides
for insect management. The agriculture biologicals sector is a
growing segment of the agriculture inputs market.
Lavie focuses on improving food quality, agricultural
sustainability and productivity through the development of novel
microbiome based agriculture biological products. Lavie's unique
approach utilizes a proprietary Computational Predictive Biology
(CPB) platform, developed by Evogene, leveraging big data and
advanced informatics through discovery, optimization and
development stages in order to create next generation
microbiome-based products. Lavie's product candidate pipeline
addresses major needs in row crops such as corn and wheat as well
as specialty crops such as grapes.
About Corteva Agriscience
Corteva Agriscience is a
publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that provides
farmers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the
industry – including a balanced and diverse mix of seed, crop
protection and digital solutions focused on maximizing productivity
to enhance yield and profitability. With some of the most
recognized brands in agriculture and an industry-leading product
and technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the
Company is committed to working with stakeholders throughout the
food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those
who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for
generations to come. Corteva Agriscience became an independent
public company on June 1, 2019, and
was previously the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont. More
information can be found at www.corteva.com.
About Evogene Ltd.
Evogene (NASDAQ, TASE: EVGN) is a
leading biotechnology company developing novel products for major
life science markets through the use of a unique computational
predictive biology (CPB) platform incorporating deep scientific
understandings and advanced computational technologies. Today, this
platform is utilized by the Company to discover and develop
innovative products in the main following areas (via subsidiaries
or divisions): ag-chemicals, ag-biologicals, seed traits, human
microbiome based therapeutics and medical cannabis. Each subsidiary
or division establishes its product pipeline and go-to-market, as
demonstrated in its collaborations with world-leading companies
such as BASF, Bayer, Corteva, and ICL. For more information, please
visit www.evogene.com
About Lavie Bio Ltd.
Lavie
Bio, a subsidiary of Evogene (NASDAQ, TASE: EVGN), aims to
improve food quality, agricultural sustainability and productivity
through the introduction of microbiome based ag-biological
products. Utilizing proprietary computational predictive
technologies, Lavie is developing 'next generation' bio-stimulants
and bio-pesticides. For more information on the company, please
visit: https://www.lavie-bio.com/
About Evogene's Computational Predictive Biology (CPB)
Platform
Evogene's CPB platform has been designed for the in
silico (computational) prediction and prioritization of genes,
proteins, microbes and small molecules based on multiple attributes
that will be key to successful development and commercialization of
novel life-science based products. Successfully addressing
these multiple product attributes at the beginning of the discovery
process, rather than one at a time during the development phase, is
expected to reduce the time and cost of a program, but much more
importantly, increase the probability of reaching a successful
outcome. Furthermore, the CPB capabilities are also directed to
optimization of products and product candidates, based on
computational and experimental results.
Corteva Agriscience Cautionary Statement About
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, which may be identified by
their use of words like "plans," "expects," "will," "anticipates,"
"believes," "intends," "projects," "targets," "estimates" or other
words of similar meaning. All statements that address expectations
or projections about the future, including statements about
Corteva's strategy for growth, product development, regulatory
approval, market position, anticipated benefits of recent
acquisitions, timing of anticipated benefits from restructuring
actions, outcome of contingencies, such as litigation and
environmental matters, expenditures, and financial results, as well
as expected benefits from, the separation of Corteva from
DowDuPont, are forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions
and expectations of future events which may not be accurate or
realized. Forward-looking statements also involve risks and
uncertainties, many of which are beyond Corteva's control.
Consequences of material differences in results as compared with
those anticipated in the forward-looking statements could include,
among other things, business disruption, operational problems,
financial loss, legal liability to third parties and similar risks,
any of which could have a material adverse effect on Corteva's
business, results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, there may be other risks and uncertainties that
Corteva is unable to currently identify or that Corteva does not
currently expect to have a material impact on its business.
Where, in any forward-looking statement, an expectation or
belief as to future results or events is expressed, such
expectation or belief is based on the current plans and
expectations of Corteva's management and expressed in good faith
and believed to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no
assurance that the expectation or belief will result or be achieved
or accomplished. Corteva disclaims and does not undertake any
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement,
except as required by applicable law. A detailed discussion of some
of the significant risks and uncertainties which may cause results
and events to differ materially from such forward-looking
statements is included in Corteva's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
for the Quarterly Period Ended March 31,
2019 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Evogene Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking
Statements
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.
08/07/19
™ ,®, ℠
Trademarks and service marks of Dow AgroSciences, DuPont or
Pioneer, and their affiliated companies or their respective
owners.
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SOURCE Corteva, Inc.