Bayer CropScience, Mertec and M.S. Technologies to co-develop new soybean trait products

Under this agreement Bayer CropScience and M.S. Technologies will combine proprietary technologies and will make them available for insertion into high-yielding elite germplasm contributed by Mertec LLC. The agreement allows for resulting traits and products to be broadly licensed to the seed industry. BayerCropScience will undertake to obtain the necessary global authorizations for the soybean traits developed under the collaboration agreement and to obtain approvals for the associated herbicide use. Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.

One of the first products expected from the collaboration will be soybean varieties with tolerance to both glyphosate and to HPPD inhibitors, a class of herbicides that include Bayer’s Balance?Pro brand isoxaflutole, currently used in corn in the United States. The combination of HPPD inhibitors tolerance plus glyphosate tolerance will offer growers flexibility in their herbicide choices, with the herbicide combination offering the potential for one pass weed control as well as effective weed resistance management.
These products are expected to be followed by other multi-trait combinations, including a triple herbicide tolerant stack with LibertyLink? thus further broadening choices for farmers.

The collaboration builds on the existing relationship between Bayer CropScience and MS Technologies, a key partner in the development of Bayer CropScience’s LibertyLink herbicide tolerant trait in soybeans. As a result of this already existing cooperation, LibertyLink soybeans are planned to be be introduced to the market in 2009. LibertyLink will be the only alternative non-selective herbicide tolerant system enabling growers to maintain current production practices but rotate weed management systems in order to avoid weed resistance.