Evogene Announces Positive 2nd Year Field Trial Results in Corn Bio-Stimulant Ag-Biologicals Program

REHOVOT, Israel, Jan. 10, 2018 -- Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN) (TASE:EVGN), a leading biotechnology company developing novel products for life science markets through the use of a proprietary computational predictive biology platform, announced today highly promising second year field trial results for its bio-stimulant microbial seed treatments for the improvement of corn yield, which are under exclusive license to DuPont Pioneer.

The bio-stimulant seed treatments tested in these recent trials conducted by Evogene demonstrated up to 20% increases in corn yield under moderate drought conditions. These seed treatments were based on Evogene identified microbial strains that had demonstrated yield improvement in previous field trials, as disclosed in late 2016, following a discovery process which included in-silico prediction and prioritization. Following 2016 field results, the strains underwent optimization of microbial formulation and fermentation processes, and the combination of multiple microbial strains into microbial teams (“teaming”) which demonstrated the promising results during 2017. The next level of field testing will be undertaken as part of our multiyear research collaboration with DuPont-Pioneer.

In addition to the bio-stimulants collaboration for corn yield with DuPont Pioneer, Evogene has an internal bio stimulant program focused on wheat yield, which is now moving forward with second year field trials following positive results in its 1^st year trials in wheat.

The bio-stimulant market is an evolving segment of the ag-biologicals market with widely predicted substantial potential, currently estimated at over $1.6 billion and with a projected annual growth rate of more than 10%. ¹

Ido Dor, EVP and GM Ag-Biologicals stated: “I am extremely pleased with the positive results achieved in our corn bio-stimulant field trials, both with respect to this program itself and our entire Ag-Biologicals activity. This advancement, along with the positive results we have demonstrated in wheat and our rapid progress in bio-pesticides, strengthen our pipeline and provide substantial commercial opportunities for the Ag-Biologicals division, especially due to the relatively short time to market that is expected for this class of products.”

Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO stated: "Even though Evogene’s Ag-Biologicals division was initiated only in 2015, we have already made significant progress, as shown by these positive results. The results were made possible only due to our broadly applicable computational predictive biology platform and the accumulated know-how that allowed the identification and prioritization of the microbial strains and 'teaming' in this program. I am confident that this progress will lead us within the coming years to the commercialization of multiple potent and efficient bio-stimulant seed treatments and other ag-biologicals products.”

About Evogene Ltd.:
Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN) (TASE:EVGN) is a leading biotechnology company developing novel products for life science markets through the use of a unique computational predictive biology platform. The Company has developed a proprietary innovative technology platform, leveraging scientific understanding & computational technologies to harness Ag ‘Big Data’ for developing improved seed traits (via: GM and non-GM approaches), as well as innovative ag-chemical and novel ag-biological products. Evogene has strategic collaborations with world-leading agricultural companies such as: BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta, focusing on innovative crop enhancement and crop protection solutions. 1000’s of Evogene discovered genes have been transferred to its various collaboration partners under milestone and royalty bearing agreements. For more information, please visit www.evogene.com. 

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could", “expects”, "intends", “anticipates”, “plans”, “believes”, “scheduled”, “estimates” or words of similar meaning. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Evogene may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which beyond Evogene's control, including, without limitation, those risk factors contained in Evogene’s reports filed with the appropriate securities authority. Evogene disclaims any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.

Contact:
Nir Zalik
IR/PR manager
E: [email protected]
T: (+972)-8-931-1963

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¹ Based on the report of Market & Markets, May 2016
http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/biostimulant.asp