1.Biotech startup Chlorogen shuts down, starts selling off its technology
2.Seed dealer closes, owing millions to Monsanto
3.Brazilian corn seed firm purchased by Monsanto
EXTRACTS: The acquisition gives Creve Coeur-based Monsanto control of brands that were planted on approximately 40 percent of Brazil's 30 million corn acres in the 2006-20007 growing season... These seeds also will provide a platform for the introduction of biotech traits... (item 3)
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1.Biotech startup Chlorogen shuts down, starts selling off its technology
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11 September 2007
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/DC74DF6BF165EE1886257353000D4A5B?OpenDocument
Chlorogen Inc., once one of the region’s most promising plant science startups, has ceased research operations and is selling off its technology, said President and Chief Executive David Duncan on Monday.
Chlorogen won acclaim at industry conferences and in Missouri for its novel approach: It genetically modified the chloroplasts of tobacco plants to produce therapeutic proteins that could be purified into drugs - and did so in a way that eliminated the possibility of those protein genes accidentally cross-pollinating with other plants.
Venture capital funds, including Clayton-based Prolog Ventures, invested $12 million in the company.
The region’s biotechnology industry leaders held up Chlorogen as a success story, and state officials offered incentives to help fund its growth.
FULL STORY: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/DC74DF6BF165EE1886257353000D4A5B?OpenDocument
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2.Seed dealer closes after 15 years
Commercial Appeal, 11 September 2007
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/11/b11delta/
Delta King transfers wheat, soybeans to Cullum Seeds
Delta King Seed Co., the seed dealership that promoted itself as the Soybean of the South, has gone out of business.
The office in McCrory, Ark., has closed and employees, including the regional sales force, were given two weeks’ severance.
Delta King, established in 1992 by Noal Lawhon, owed millions of dollars in technology fees to Monsanto Co. after the company apparently overestimated the amount of seed it could sell and was forced to take a loss, sources said.
FULL STORY: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/11/b11delta/
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3.Brazilian firm purchased
St. Louis Today, 12 September 2007
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/19976A8011B3C92786257354000CB023?OpenDocument
Monsanto Co. said Tuesday that it paid $100 million to acquire a leading Brazilian corn seed company, Agroeste Sementes.
The acquisition gives Creve Coeur-based Monsanto control of brands that were planted on approximately 40 percent of Brazil's 30 million corn acres in the 2006-20007 growing season.
Monsanto said it will use seeds owned by Agroeste to breed higher-yielding corn for Brazil, the world's third-largest corn production area. These seeds also will provide a platform for the introduction of biotech traits such as Monsanto's insect-resistant YieldGard Corn Borer, which last month passed an initial regulatory hurdle with the Brazilian government.