AgPlenus Ltd., a company that designs and develops novel sustainable crop protection products, announced Feb. 21 the signing of a licensing & collaboration agreement with Bayer Ag.

In collaboration with Bayer’s Crop Science division, AgPlenus will use its AI driven computational modeling technology to design and optimize molecules identified for their broad-spectrum herbicidal activity targeting the APTH1 protein, a new mode of action identified by AgPlenus. The 2 companies will collaborate to optimize new molecules, identified by AgPlenus and tested by Bayer, into commercially viable candidates. The collaboration will leverage AgPlenus’ proprietary computational technology, powered by Evogene's ChemPass AI tech engine, together with Bayer’s extensive expertise in research, development and commercialization of crop protection products. 

Under the agreement, Bayer will have the exclusive license for the development and commercialization of products developed within the collaboration. AgPlenus will be entitled to receive an upfront payment, ongoing research funding, milestone payments and royalties based on future product sales.

“We are looking forward to the collaboration with AgPlenus who shares our belief that the breakthrough technologies available today represent a vast potential to design and develop entirely new solutions to help farmers overcome challenges such as pest resistance, climate change and societal expectations towards crop protection” said Rachel Rama, Head of Small Molecules at Bayer’s Crop Science division. “Bringing together AgPlenus’ expertise with Bayer’s CropKey approach to crop protection innovation will help accelerate the delivery of essential, sustainable and affordable solutions to farmers and set a new benchmark in the industry.”

"The collaboration with Bayer is a significant step forward for AgPlenus and validates the value of our computational technology platform," said Dr. Brian Ember, CEO of AgPlenus. "Leveraging Bayer's expertise and AgPlenus' technology, our mutual goal is to provide farmers worldwide with effective tools for more sustainable crop protection, by introducing a novel herbicide with a new MoA."

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