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News Release
DEMEGEN LICENSES TRANSGENIC CROP TECHNOLOGY TO DOW AGROSCIENCES
12/9/1998 Pittsburgh, PA and Indianapolis, IN - Demegen, Inc. and Dow AgroSciences LLC announced today the expansion of a license agreement to include technologies to increase the nutrition quality and protein content in food and feed crops. The previous license agreement between Demegen and Mycogen had been specific to technologies for the development of disease resistant crops.
The disease control technology reflected in the initial Demegen-Mycogen agreement was announced November 13, 1997. It demonstrated in field trials that Irish potatoes transformed with Demegen genes showed a significant reduction in Erwinia caratovora, a major post harvest bacterial problem that causes "soft rot." Other crops with this technology have demonstrated resistance to Rhizoctonia and to Phytophthora, two major diseases affecting crops around the world.
The patented nutrition technology reflected in this expanded agreement was recently demonstrated by Demegen. Sweet potatoes transformed with Demegen genes produced a total protein content more than three times the normal level. In addition, the "essential" amino acid content, of which most plants are deficient, were at levels which could reduce the need for supplemental amino acids coming from fermentation products or animal-based proteins. Incorporating these genes into major food and feed crops offers the potential to significantly enhance the quality and quantity of world food production by making the production of food more efficient and improving the diets of all people, in particular those who suffer from malnutrition.
"We are pleased with this expansion of our agreement with Demegen. Their latest technology gives us the opportunity to advance our position in each of our three fundamental business units - traits, seeds, and value enhanced grains," said Nick Hein, Vice President for Biotechnology and Plant Genetics at Dow AgroSciences. He continued, "Today, growers are forced to carefully mix various feeds and then supplement with other essential amino acid additives in order to meet the differing nutritional requirements of pigs, chicken and cattle. The Demegen technology offers a powerful tool to tailor these feeds specifically to the needed nutritional values, reducing costs, and improving the efficiency of meat production."
Richard D. Ekstrom, President of Demegen said: "These technologies invented by Jesse Jaynes, Ph.D., Vice President of Research for Demegen, are very significant and visionary. In the area of nutrition enhancement, there have been many attempts to modify the amino acid content in plants, but none with the broad results shown here. In initial animal feeding trials, the new proteins have shown a high level of bioavailability, and appear to be suitably appetizing to the animals."
Demegen, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a biotechnology research company that designs and develops novel synthetic compounds. The Company's primary focus is the treatment of human and plant diseases, along with nutrition ehnacement of food and feed crops. The company's lead pharmaceutical compound has demonstrated the ability to substantially reduce both solid and mestastasized prostrate cancer tumors in mice and rats without toxicity. The Company is planning to begin human clinical trials in 1999. The Demegen website is www.demegen.com.
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