Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

It’s Almost Time for Generics on the Farm

[See http://assets.bizjournals.com/cms_media/stlouis/monsantoletter.pdf for the Dec 2009 letter MON sent to soybean farmers vis-à-vis patent expiration of first-generation Roundup Ready soybeans.]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN137431020110113?feedType=RSS&feedName=basicMaterialsSector&rpc=43

›Jan 13, 2011 6:11pm EST

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The biotechnology industry should develop a format to handle the looming expiration of patents on the first wave of genetically modified (GM) crops, to avoid seed shortages or trade disruptions, the largest U.S. farm group said.

"There just needs to be a way to deal with it," Rosemarie Watkins of the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation said on Thursday. Patents will expire in coming years on two dozen genetically modified seed varieties. The first, in 2014, will be the herbicide-tolerant Roundup Ready soybeans developed by Monsanto Co (MON) and used by most U.S. soybean farmers.

Some grower and seed groups have asked if generic versions of the seeds will be available in time and if other nations will accept the crops. Half of U.S. soybeans are exported, for example, so rejection could be price disaster for growers.

Foreign approval is held by the company that owns the patent. The transition from patented to generic seed is not certain either at home or abroad, say some farm and seed groups.

Delegates amended AFBF policy during a meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday to say, "We favor an industry-developed protocol for biotech crops before coming off patent." The change was proposed by Phil Nelson, president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, and approved, 207-114.

One opponent said the language amounted to taking sides in a potential lawsuit between Monsanto, the No 1 seed company, and DuPont (DD), owner of rival Pioneer Hi-Bred.

"We welcome the Farm Bureau resolution as it recognizes the industry's efforts," said a spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group. Monsanto had no comment.

BIO has a post-patent task force at work on development of an industry accord. Task force principles include maintenance of export approvals and fair treatment of intellectual property.

Monsanto said last summer it would maintain export approval status for Roundup Ready soybeans through 2021, four years longer than it pledged initially [i.e. seven years beyond the end of the patent term]. A farm group, the American Soybean Association, said private and public sector breeders should be allowed to work on the trait before it expires.

Monsanto says seed breeders and seed companies will be in position to put a generic version of Roundup Ready soybeans on the market in 2015. Monsanto has a new, patented "Roundup Ready 2 Yield" genetic trait into the marketplace. [MON claims that RR2Y seeds will more than pay for themselves in increased yield relative to first-generation Roundup Ready, but this claim has encountered some skepticism in the marketplace.]

When the patent expires, growers can save some of their soybeans as seed for next year's crop, rather than having to pay Monsanto for the right to plant it. [This works because, unlike corn, commercial soybean varieties are not hybrids.].‹