Agrisoma Biosciences Inc. ("Agrisoma") and Dow AgroSciences LLC ("Dow AgroSciences") announced today a collaboration agreement to research, develop and commercialize animal health products using Agrisoma's patented ACE System. Under the terms of the agreement, Agrisoma will apply its gene delivery and expression technology with Dow AgroSciences plant systems.  Financial details of the agreement, which include upfront and milestone payments, research funding and royalties, were not disclosed.

"This alliance with Dow AgroSciences is important to Agrisoma because it validates the growing interest in the market for selecting the ACE System as a robust and innovative tool to transfer and express genes in plant systems," said Agrisoma President and CEO, Tom Mamic. "This is the first commercial agreement whereby the ACE System is being employed in a plant-based application, and we are pleased that it is being executed with a leading agricultural sciences company such as Dow AgroSciences. This collaboration will provide a solid foundation for our platform technology to become the gene delivery and expression vehicle of choice for the development of value enhanced crops and plant-made proteins."

"Dow AgroSciences plant-made protein capabilities will be broadened by accessing Agrisoma's technology," said Butch Mercer, global business leader, Animal Health and Food Safety for Dow AgroSciences. "We believe this collaboration could potentially provide us with the ability to significantly decrease our time to market for engineered plants through the ACE System's ability to simultaneously introduce and express multiple genes into plants, offering a powerful tool in the production of proteins."

Agrisoma Biosciences Inc. is a private biotechnology company developing a chromosome-based gene delivery and expression platform in plant-based systems. Founded in 2001 as a spin-off from Chromos Molecular Systems Inc., and owning an exclusive license to technology developed since 1996, Agrisoma offers an innovative approach to the development of value enhanced crops and the production of industrial and therapeutic proteins.

Agrisoma's technology is a gene delivery and expression platform capable of simultaneously introducing multiple genes into known sites in plants in an efficient and predictable way. Once delivered, these genes exhibit stable and predictable expression from generation to generation enabling the creation of value enhanced crops and plants optimized for the production of industrial and therapeutic proteins. Agrisoma's technology overcomes the limitations of conventional gene transfer technologies in crops which include reduced efficiency due to random integration of genes, and limited capacity to transfer large amounts of DNA, an important feature to enable crops to express multiple traits or large complex genes.

Dow AgroSciences LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is a global leader in providing pest management, agricultural seed and biotechnology products that improve the quality and quantity of the earth's food supply and contribute to the health and quality of life of the world's growing population. Dow AgroSciences has approximately 5700 people in more than 50 countries dedicated to its business, and has worldwide sales of US $3 billion. Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.