Plantark Bio Ag-Biotech, a research and development company in the field of locating genes and biological components to improve plant traits, intended primarily for use in the global agriculture industry, announced today that it has received a regulatory marketing permit from the US Department of Agriculture (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – USDA APHIS). “”) To a gene that confers resistance to herbicides from the HPPD family in soybean and cotton crops. The permit allows commercial use of the garden and marketing of soybean and cotton seeds containing this garden in the United States.
The marketing permit obtained allows the company and potential partners – the seed companies – savings of tens of millions of dollars in the development and regulation costs of soybean and cotton crops that are resistant to herbicides, and shortens their time to market by an average of 4 years. The company intends to enter into licensing agreements with leading seed companies in the field of soybeans and cotton, for the purpose of promoting the development and commercialization of resistant seeds for HPPD herbicides based on the gene.
This is the company’s first regulatory marketing permit for a garden it has developed, and to the best of its knowledge, it is one of the few companies in the world, and the first Israeli company, to obtain a regulatory marketing permit in this route. The permit is granted on the basis of an exemption from a full regulatory route that the US Department of Agriculture may grant, in cases where regulatory approval has already been given for similar gardens for assimilation in the same plant species. The gene is in the process of patent approval.