May 8, 1996
SAN DIEGO, Calif. Mycogen Corporation (Nasdaq: MYCO) and its seed subsidiaries filed suit here today, seeking actual and punitive damages from Monsanto Company for breach of contract and interference with Mycogen�s seed business.
The suit stems from Monsanto�s refusal to honor a contract to license certain herbicide tolerance and insect resistance technology for plants to Mycogen�s Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. subsidiary (MPS). On April 2, 1996, the California Court of Appeal affirmed MPS�s right to exercise options Monsanto granted in 1989 to license Monsanto�s Roundup Ready� herbicide tolerance technology for corn, cotton and oilseed rape and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insect-resistance gene technology for corn.
When MPS advised Monsanto in 1993 of its desire to license the Monsanto technology for use in MPS�s seed product develop programs, Monsanto refused and Mycogen filed suit. A lower court ruled in Monsanto�s favor in 1994, but that decision was reversed in April by the Court of Appeal.
�Monsanto�s continuing refusal to live up to its contractual obligation to license this technology to Mycogen has been very damaging to our stockholders and our seed business,� said Jerry Caulder, Mycogen�s chairman and chief executive officer. �Even if we receive that technology today, we�re nearly three years behind where we should have been. Our stockholders are entitled to compensation, both in terms of what that has meant to the value of Mycogen�s stock and in lost opportunity for our seed business.�
Mycogen is a diversified agricultural biotechnology company that develops and markets technology-based products and provides crop protection services to control agricultural pests and improve food and fiber production. Mycogen Seeds develops and markets planting seeds for improved crop varieties with genetically enhanced insect-resistance and other value-added characteristics. Mycogen Crop Protection develops and markets environmentally compatible biopesticides and provides crop protection services to growers of high value crops in California and Arizona.
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