BASF, Monsanto Expand R&D Collaboration To Wheat

Posted by Matt Hopkins|7 July 2010

LIMBURGERHOF, Germany and ST. LOUIS, Missouri, US -– BASF Plant Science and Monsanto Co. have added a fifth crop, wheat, to their joint plant biotechnology pipeline to develop higher-yielding and stress-tolerant crops, according to a BASF press release. The companies are also increasing their investments in the collaboration, which was established in 2007 and includes corn, soy, cotton and canola. In the original collaboration, the two companies dedicated a joint budget of potentially $1.5 billion; the new agreement will add a potential investment of more than $1 billion during the life of the collaboration.

Each company will continue to maintain independent trait discovery programs; specific candidate genes to advance for joint development will be nominated by each company from those programs. Projects will be jointly funded through each phase of development, and those products emerging from the joint development will be commercialized by Monsanto and the profits will be shared, with Monsanto receiving 60% of net profits and BASF receiving 40%.

BASF and Monsanto will initially focus on developing biotech wheat products for the North American and Australian markets. The first enhanced yielding wheat product is expected to reach the market after 2020, to be followed by successive generations of higher-yielding wheat varieties.

Wheat is the world’s second largest commodity crop after corn, with demand expected to grow.