The British Virgin Islands-registered company Origin Agritech announced a licensing agreement with a multinational partner, with the purpose to develop high-yielding corn varieties incorporating the Origin Agritech glyphosate- resistant and Bt- traits.
These traits proved to be effective in both lab and field environments, their commercialization is novel to the Chinese market, and they are protected by patents granted separately by China and USA. The BVI company will license the traits to its partner and take the lead in the development and testing activities.
Origin Agritech is the owner of comprehensive worldwide rights to glyphosate- resistant and BT- genes developed by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).
According to the Acting Chief Financial Officer of the BVI corporation, this agreement is a milestone for Origin Agritech to validate its GM technology. He said that, after the successful integration of these traits, the company would be seeking to finalize subsequent collaboration agreements to sell these seeds into Chinese and potentially in the other markets.