Research Triangle Park, North
Carolina
November 30, 2006
Athenix Corporation, a
leading biotechnology company that develops novel products and
technologies for agricultural and sustainable industrial
applications, announced the results from its 2006 field trials.
Athenix' proprietary genes for resistance to the key insect
pests of corn and tolerance to the world's leading herbicide,
glyphosate, all performed exceptionally well in the field this
past summer. Based on these successful field results, Athenix is
advancing its lead products for insect resistance and herbicide
tolerance into registration and commercial development.
In its herbicide tolerance trials, Athenix' proprietary class of
glyphosate tolerant genes produced outstanding levels of
tolerance to this important herbicide. In the insect resistance
trials, plants demonstrated commercial levels of resistance to
the key pests European corn borer and corn rootworm, as well as
resistance to corn earworm.
"These successful field trials mark yet another major product
development milestone for Athenix. We are extremely pleased with
the outstanding performance of our plants in the field. We have
made significant progress this year on all our key products. Our
herbicide tolerance, nematode resistance, and insect resistance
technologies will allow Athenix to provide the Crop Production
Industry with the most advanced trait stack products," said Mike
Koziel, President and CEO of Athenix.
"Athenix has entered an exciting and intense commercial product
development phase that includes additional field trials and the
development of regulatory packages. This will allow us to sell
transgenic corn products offering resistance to insects and
tolerance to glyphosate," added Nadine Carozzi, Vice President
of Product Development of Athenix.
The genes tested in these field trials were discovered by
Athenix' powerful discovery platform. Athenix has used its
proprietary MiDAS technology to mine its extensive collection of
microbes, and has discovered several new gene classes that
control the key insect pests of crop plants, resulting in the
industry's largest library of insecticidal and nematocidal
genes.
In a separate effort, Athenix has demonstrated activity of its
nematode resistance genes in plants and is planning to test a
stack of its glyphosate tolerance and nematode resistance genes
in soybean field trials in 2007. The soybean cyst nematode is a
major pest in the United States, causing crop losses in excess
of $1 billion each year.
Athenix is a leading biotechnology company that develops
novel products and technologies for agricultural and sustainable
industrial applications. Athenix is focused on developing
enhanced plants, microbes, enzymes, and processes with emphasis
on two major market opportunities: 1) the discovery of genes and
proteins for novel input traits such as insect resistance,
nematode resistance, and herbicide tolerance, and their use to
develop transgenic plants for the Crop Production Industry; and
2) the discovery of genes and proteins for use in the
Sustainable Chemical Industry. |
|
