PHC.L Regulatory News (PHC)

17 Jan 2007 07:01

Plant Health Care PLC17 January 2007 Embargoed until 7:01am 17 January 2007 PLANT HEALTH CARE PLC Bayer CropScience and Plant Health Care sign Myconate development and commercialisation agreement New seed treatment technology for use in important crops including corn and soybean worldwide Bayer CropScience AG and Plant Health Care Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary ofPlant Health Care plc ("Plant Health Care") have entered into an agreement of upto ten years to develop new seed treatment solutions based on Plant HealthCare's Myconate technology in combination with Bayer CropScience's seedtreatment products. The agreement enables Bayer CropScience to develop andcommercialise new seed treatment solutions. Plant Health Care will receive an undisclosed up-front payment, two milestonepayments, dependent on the progress of the development, over the next two yearsand supply payments. The companies believe that Myconate enhanced seed treatmentproducts could be available to growers as early as 2009, subject to regulatoryapprovals. The contract was signed on 16 January 2007. In the seed treatment segment, Bayer CropScience offers a broad portfolio ofhigh-quality products to combat pests and fungal diseases. Plant Health Care'sMyconate technology is known to help crops to develop larger root mass throughthe stimulation of naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi, which in turn oftenleads to improved yields and enhanced stress resistance. Both companies willcollaborate on the further development of Myconate as a seed treatment productin corn, soybean, cotton and sunflower on a worldwide basis. "We are pleased to have secured the exclusive rights for the development ofMyconate", stated Gerhard Simons, Head of the Business Unit Seed Treatmentwithin Bayer CropScience. "This agreement underlines Bayer CropScience's strongcommitment to enhance plant health and to ensure the quality and quantity ofyields. In addition, Myconate shows an excellent strategic fit within our R&Dpipeline and represents an exciting opportunity to further expand and extend therange of seed treatment products and services Bayer CropScience offers to itscustomers." Commenting on the agreement Greg Lewis, Managing Director of Plant Health Caresaid: "Bayer CropScience is the innovation leader and the world's number oneprovider of seed treatment solutions and we are delighted to be working togetherto develop Myconate." John Brady, CEO of Plant Health Care added: "This agreement represents asignificant step forward in the development of our company and provides theideal first platform for Myconate. The cooperation with Bayer CropSciencevalidates the confidence that the Board of Plant Health Care has had in theMyconate technology. We see a very attractive market potential for Myconateenhanced crop protection products, with a total target of some 200 million acresglobally." -ends- A briefing for analysts, hosted by John Brady, CEO of Plant Health Care, will beheld at 10:30am today, 17 January 2007, at the offices of TavistockCommunications, 131 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC2A 1NT. For further information contact: Plant Health Care plcJohn Brady, CEO; phone: +1 603 525 3702E-Mail: jabrady@planthealthcare.com Tavistock ComunicationsJeremy Carey/Matt Ridsdale, phone: +44 20 7920 3150E-Mail: jcarey@tavistock.co.uk, mridsdale@tavistock.co.uk Bayer CropScienceUtz Klages, phone: +49 2173 38-3125E-Mail: utz.klages@bayercropscience.com Notes to Editors: About Plant Health Care: Plant Health Care plc ("PHC") is a leading provider of natural products forplants and soil. Established in 1995 in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in the UnitedStates, PHC currently has approximately 70 employees and has operations in theUS, Mexico, UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. The Company listed on the AIM marketof the London Stock Exchange in July 2004. Ticker symbol is PHC. PHC's products are aimed at the landscape, agriculture and land reclamationindustries and are environmentally beneficial. Through the commercialization ofthese products, PHC is capitalizing on current long-term trends toward naturalsystems and biological products for plant care and soil and water management.Further information is available at: www.planthealthcare.com About Bayer CropScience: Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.9billion in 2005, is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companiesin the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plantbiotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensiveservice backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agriculturalapplications. Bayer Crop-Science has a global workforce of about 19,000 and isrepresented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at:www.newsroom.bayercropscience.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements based on currentassumptions and forecasts made by Bayer CropScience AG management. Various knownand unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to materialdifferences between the actual future consolidated results, financial situation,development or performance of the Bayer CropScience AG or our parent company,Bayer AG, and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed inBayer AG's public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including Bayer AG's Form 20-F).Neither Bayer AG nor Bayer CropScience AG assumes any liability whatsoever toupdate these forward-looking statements or to con-form them to future events ordevelopments. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange