Plant Health Care provides update on Harpin seed treatment

Plant Health Care (PHC) recently announced a new strategy in March 2013, based on accelerating the development of new generation Harpin products and ramping up sales of products based on the current Harpin αβ over the next three years.

As part of the implementation of that strategy, PHC recently announced that the Company and Monsanto have mutually agreed to discontinue the 2008 Harpin αβ agreement which granted Monsanto certain exclusive rights to develop and sell Harpin αβ as a seed treatment. Under the terms of this mutual agreement, all licensed rights have reverted back to PHC and PHC has purchased Monsanto’s remaining Harpin αβ inventory. This agreement enables PHC to continue to build on the growth in use of Harpin αβ by resuming direct control of the product for seed treatment and gaining the flexibility to partner with others to develop and sell into all crop markets on a global basis.

The Company is currently exploring potential partnerships with a number of parties and anticipates reaching agreement with one or more of them by the end of this year. This will complement the recent agreement with Arysta Life Sciences to further drive the growth in use of Harpin αβ as a foliar application. As disclosed in March 2013, the Company continues to adopt a more cautious approach to budgeting for future revenues and notes that the precise timing of these agreements and revenues remains uncertain.

Following the spring seed treatment season, which was adversely impacted due to inclement weather across much of the corn/soybean belt of the US, and a recent in depth review of on ground sales and inventories, the Company now believes that the process of exhaustion of existing inventory will continue into 2014.