Monsanto, Bayer announce cross-licensing deal

Rival biotech companies to Share Plant Biotechnology

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

Monsanto Co. and competitor Bayer CropScience announced on Tuesday that they have signed a series of cross-licensing agreements to share various crop biotechnologies for weed and pest control.

Monsanto is granting Bayer royalty-bearing licences for its Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend technology for soybeans in the U.S. and Canada. In turn, Bayer is granting Monsanto licences to its technologies for controlling corn rootworm.

Monsanto and other agricultural biotech companies have been working on developing new chemicals to tackle weed resistance, which has become a problem with the expansion of Roundup resistant weeds and insects. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.