By: ICN Bureau
Last updated : July 07, 2021 9:12 am
The announcement focuses on the progress in developing a resistance trait to AgPlenus' leading herbicide candidate, APH1.
AgPlenus Ltd., a company designing effective, sustainable crop protection products by leveraging computational biology and chemistry, and a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd. has achieved positive results in a Proof of Concept (POC) testing of a resistance trait for its leading novel Mode-of-Action (MoA) herbicide product candidate, APH1.
The preferred agricultural practice in field crops is utilizing herbicides that only affect weeds, and not the commercial crop. Among other benefits, this allows farmers to apply the herbicide during the growing season without risk to the commercial crop. Therefore, there is importance in developing herbicides to which commercial crops have inherent tolerance, or for which resistance can be developed. The announcement focuses on the progress in developing a resistance trait to AgPlenus' leading herbicide candidate, APH1.
Herbicides play an important role in global food supply, with the global herbicide market estimated to reach $34 billion in 2022. Over the last several decades, the increasing use of existing MoA herbicides, along with the extremely limited introduction of new MoA herbicides, has resulted in weeds that are developing increased resistance to the currently available commercial products. The key solution to the emergence of herbicide-resistance in weeds is the development and application of new MoA herbicides.
Douglas Eisner, CEO of AgPlenus, stated: "The results of this POC experiment demonstrate the feasibility of developing seeds for commercial crops that are resistant to our herbicide candidate, APH1, potentially broadening the market for APH1 to a wider range of crops. AgPlenus intends to leverage the success of this POC experiment to expand our product offerings. We are looking forward to the next developmental stage, moving from the model tobacco plant to soybean plants, representing an important potential market segment for APH1."
Ofer Haviv, Chairman of AgPlenus and CEO of Evogene, stated: "I am excited to see AgPlenus achieve such a significant milestone in the development of one of the most desired products in crop protection – a new MoA herbicide and a seed that is resistant to it. This success is most certainly the result of AgPlenus' unique computational approach to crop protection development, based on the use of Evogene's ChemPass AI engine. I look forward to seeing the continued development of these product candidates and others in the coming year."