Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and Melbourne, Australia
December 7, 2017
New and innovative forage products are on the horizon driven by continued collaboration between Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), and Agriculture Victoria, Australia. Dow AgroSciences works on a variety of projects with Agriculture Victoria through its commercial arm, Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd. (AVS), and today announces that AVS is taking a commercial license to the EXZACT™ Precision Technology Platform to continue the development and commercialization of new forage grass varieties to benefit farmers in Australia and around the world.
The commercial license agreement focuses on the development of forage grass varieties and associated fungal endophytes developed using precision genome editing technologies. It builds on the major Research License Agreement AVS has with Dow AgroSciences to conduct research using the company's proprietary EXZACT(TM) Technology. The announcement of a milestone commercial license between Dow AgroSciences and AVS recognizes the advances Agriculture Victoria has made researching and developing innovative forage products using this gene editing platform that Dow AgroSciences has developed under an exclusive license and collaboration agreement in plants with Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.
"Our focus is on the farmer, and this commercial license validates the broad application of the EXZACT(TM) technology that can translate into new products for farmers around the world, and also illustrates the power of collaboration to advance technology," said Daniel R. Kittle, Ph.D., vice president, Research and Development, Dow AgroSciences.
"Our most productive collaboration with Dow AgroSciences has enabled the development of a suite of innovations for crop improvement. It has also provided us with access to the EXZACT(TM) technology for its application in forage grasses with global reach, to deliver benefits on-farm to dairy, beef and sheep industries," said Professor German Spangenberg, Agriculture Victoria's Executive Director Biosciences Research.
About Agriculture Victoria and AVS
Agriculture Victoria works with industry, primary producers, urban and regional communities to improve livability and drive sustainable economic growth in the food and fiber sectors in Victoria, Australia. Dow AgroSciences works with Agriculture Victoria through its commercial arm, Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd.
About Dow AgroSciences
Dow AgroSciences discovers, develops and brings to market crop protection and plant biotechnology solutions for the growing world. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company and had annual global sales of $6.4 billion in 2015. Learn more at www.dowagro.com. Follow Dow AgroSciences on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.
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