Evogene and ICL Innovation Sign Collaboration for Development of Crop Enhancers
R&D collaboration will focus on discovery of products for improvement of nutrient use efficiency in selected crops
Rehovot, and Tel Aviv, Israel – February 14, 2017 – Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ; TASE: EVGN), a leading company for the improvement of crop productivity, and ICL Innovation, a subsidiary of ICL (NYSE; TASE: ICL), announced today they have entered a multi-year research and development collaboration for the discovery of novel crop enhancers for the improvement of nutrient use efficiency in selected crops.
Under the terms of the agreement, Evogene will utilize its computational discovery platform to identify the potential of certain compounds to improve nutrient use efficiency. Successful candidates identified from the collaboration may be integrated into ICL’s product pipeline for further development and formulation. Expected commercialization of products derived from the joint efforts may occur as early as five years from initiation of the research and development activities.
“This collaboration brings two very unique companies together, each with very distinct capabilities and strong track record,” said Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO. “ICL currently offers one of the industry’s most robust and diverse fertilizer portfolios, and we believe that, together with Evogene’s market leadership in bringing predictive biology to agricultural innovation, we can introduce novel chemistry-based products for enhancing crop productivity through better utilization of applied specialty fertilizers.”
“This is Evogene’s first collaboration in the area of specialty fertilizers, and we are very excited with the opportunity it presents Evogene to apply its capabilities in a new, and very significant, market segment in agriculture,” added Mr. Haviv.
Eyal Ginzberg, CTO of ICL: “We are excited to embark on this cutting edge research with Evogene, a company well recognized for its high competency in genomic computational tools. ICL has a unique range of specialty fertilizers including controlled release fertilizers and solubles for fertigation and foliar application. Our products enhance the efficiency of plant nutrition, increase yield and improve crop quality. Our research aims to improve nutrient use efficiency with innovative technologies. We look forward to our collaboration with Evogene, which will give us access to novel crop enhancers to further enhance our product offering.”
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