Origin Agritech expands GMO trait portfolio

Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) (the "Company" or "Origin"), an agriculture technology company, announced on July 12 that it has entered into an exclusive rights agreement with Biology Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for its drought resistant GMO trait (Chinese patent number: ZL02127187.9, US Patent Number: US7323339B2).

The licensing agreement gives Origin exclusive global rights to the GMO trait for the full term of the patent. The drought-tolerant corn has been approved for production trials from China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (the fourth stage in the five stage process to receive its bio-safety certificate). Furthermore, Origin has already successfully converted its elite corn hybrids into drought resistant traits.

The trait has expressed excellent performance under water stress conditions through the whole growing period. Multi year experiments have shown the yield of drought tolerance corn is 9.2-16.2% higher than non-GMO corn under water stress conditions. Under irrigated conditions, the GMO enhanced corn increases water use efficiency by 33-47%.

Dr. Gengchen Han, Origin Agritech's Chairman, said, "We are very excited to expand our GMO trait portfolio. We believe that drought resistance will be a major area of focus as the effects of climate change come to the forefront of the world's attention."