DuPont, Monsanto Announce Technology Licensing Deals on Next Gen Soybean Technologies

DuPont DD and Monsanto MON announced today a series of technology licensing agreements that will expand the range of seed products they can offer farmers.  The agreements include a multi-year, royalty-bearing license for Monsanto's next-generation soybean technologies in the United States and Canada.  Through these agreements, DuPont Pioneer will be able to offer Genuity^® Roundup Ready 2 Yield^® soybeans as early as 2014, and Genuity^® Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™ glyphosate and dicamba tolerant soybeans as early as 2015, pending regulatory approvals. DuPont Pioneer also will receive regulatory data rights for the soybean and corn traits previously licensed from Monsanto, enabling it to create a wide array of stacked trait combinations using traits or genetics from DuPont Pioneer or others.  Monsanto will receive access to certain DuPont Pioneer disease resistance and corn defoliation patents.  "This technology exchange helps both companies to expand the range of innovative solutions we can offer farmers, and to do so faster than either of us could alone," said DuPont Pioneer President Paul E. Schickler.  "The agreements broaden the Pioneer soybean line-up. Importantly, they give us greater flexibility in developing combinations of genetics and traits to help feed an increasingly crowded planet."  Schickler reaffirmed DuPont's existing financial growth commitments for its Agriculture segment.