Evogene’s AgPlenus announces licensing, collaboration agreement with Bayer

AgPlenus, a subsidiary of Evogene (EVGN), announced the signing of a licensing & collaboration agreement with Bayer (BAYRY). In collaboration with Bayer’s Crop Science division, having an industry-leading R&D pipeline and portfolio of seeds & traits, crop protection, and digital farming solutions, AgPlenus will use its AI-driven computational modeling technology to design and optimize molecules identified for their broad-spectrum herbicidal activity targeting the APTH1 protein, a new mode of action identified by AgPlenus. The two companies will collaborate to optimize new molecules, identified by AgPlenus and tested by Bayer, into commercially viable candidates. The collaboration will leverage AgPlenus’ proprietary computational technology, powered by Evogene’s ChemPass AI tech engine, together with Bayer’s extensive expertise in research, development and commercialization of crop protection products. Under the agreement, Bayer will have the exclusive license for the development and commercialization of products developed within the collaboration. AgPlenus will be entitled to receive an upfront payment, ongoing research funding, milestone payments, and royalties based on future product sales.