DuPont and
Monsanto 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(R)
Roundup Ready 2 Yield(R) soybeans as early as 2014, and Genuity(R) Roundup Ready
2 Xtend(TM) 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.
"We've always agreed that technological innovation and farmer choice are
essential to agriculture, and this agreement endorses the value of our
next-generation soybean technologies," said Brett Begemann, Monsanto president
and chief commercial officer. "This signals a new approach to our companies
doing business together, allowing two of the leaders in the industry to focus on
bringing farmers the best products possible while working to advance innovation
and long-term opportunity for agriculture."
Under these agreements, DuPont Pioneer will make a series of upfront and
variable based royalty payments subject to future delivery of enabling soybean
genetic material. It will make four annual fixed royalty payments from 2014 to
2017 totaling $802 million for trait technology, associated data, and soybean
lines to support commercial introduction. Additionally, beginning in 2018,
DuPont Pioneer will pay royalties on a per unit basis of Genuity Roundup Ready 2
Yield(R) and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend(TM) for the life of the agreement for
continued technology access, subject to annual minimum payments through 2023
totaling $950 million. DuPont is filing a Form 8-K containing additional
information about the impact of these agreements on the company. A copy of the
8-K is available on the DuPont Investor Center at www.investors.dupont.com.
DuPont and Monsanto also agreed to dismiss their respective antitrust and
first-generation Roundup Ready(R) soybean patent lawsuits pending in U.S.
federal court in St. Louis.
Additional terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
