Mycogen Seeds
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| Mycogen Seeds | |
|---|---|
| Type | Agriculture/Subsidiary |
| Founded | SanDiego, CA (1982) |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, IN, United States |
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Products | Hybrid and varietal seeds |
| Parent | Dow AgroSciences |
| Website | www.mycogen.com |
Mycogen Seeds provides seeds for agriculture. Mycogen is the one of the largest sunflower seed producers.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Mycogen Corporation was formed in 1982 by members of the San Diego business and scientific communities, including David H. Rammler, a partner in the venture capital firm of Vanguard Associates, who served as the first chairman of the company, and Andrew C. Barnes, a biochemist with an MBA from the Stanford School of Business. The original concept was to develop environmentally safe herbicides from fungi using genetic engineering, thus the name Mycogen, coined from the Greek word for fungus and genetics.
[edit] Important Dates in Mycogen Seeds History
- 1985 The company was researching the use of dead bacteria as a delivery system for environmentally safe insecticides. The delivery system, which Mycogen called MCap (later CellCap), used the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.) to produce and encapsulate toxic proteins genetically engineered to target specific agricultural pests.
- 1987 Mycogen received a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct field tests of its patented MCap technology against the Colorado potato beetle.
- 1987 The company also announced the discovery of several new toxins and entered a three-year agreement with Kubota Ltd., a Japanese maker of farm implements, that contributed $6 million for research and established a research facility in Japan in exchange for Far East marketing rights. Mycogen also entered a three-year agreement with Cleveland-based Lubrizol Enterprises, Inc., whose Agrigenetics subsidiary was the nation's sixth largest seed company. In Mycogen's annual report, Jerry Caulder, former vice president of biotechnology business development at Monsanto Co., who joined Mycogen as president and chief executive in 1984, noted that Lubrizol was contributing $5.4 million to fund additional research in exchange for "rights to use certain of our technology outside the field of pesticides--our mainline business."
- 1987 Mycogen also went public in 1987, raising $18 million from the sale of 1.8 million shares. Revenues that year, mostly installments from the research agreements, were $2.3 million, up from just $171,000 in 1986, but the company still finished the year with a nearly $5 million loss.
- 1990 Mycogen became the first company to receive approval from the EPA to conduct large-scale field tests of a genetically engineered insecticide. The pesticide, which Mycogen called MVP, targeted the leaf-eating diamondback moth caterpillar and other chemically resistant pests that attacked cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes and other field crops.
- 1991 The EPA completed its review of Mycogen's field studies and cleared the way for the company to begin selling MVP and M-One Plus, which targeted the Colorado potato beetle, elm leaf beetle, and other pests that attacked eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and some ornamental trees. Later that year, Mycogen paid $21 million to acquire Soilserv, a division of Georgia-based Griffin Corp. that provided custom crop protection services to vegetable growers in California's agriculturally rich Salinas Valley. Mycogen planned to leverage the Soilserv division, which had annual revenues of $20 million, to distribute its biopesticides. By then, Mycogen was focusing almost exclusively on the B.t. bacterium and had identified more than 3,000 strains with potential insecticide applications.
- 1992 Mycogen acquired 51 percent of Agrigenetics from Lubrizol, which had become a major shareholder with a 12 percent interest in Mycogen. The acquisition was part of a joint venture designed to use Mycogen's B.t. biotoxin and gene technologies to engineer insect-resistant seeds. Lubrizol also committed $12 million to continue Agrigenetics research into genetically enhanced oil seed crops.
- 1992 The company established a wholly owned subsidiary, Parasitix Corporation, to develop pesticides affecting the poultry and livestock industries, and introduced its first products based on the fatty acid technology developed by Safer, Inc.
- 1993 Mycogen entered into a ten year agreement with Enzyme Bio-Systems, Ltd., a Beloit, Wisconsin, subsidiary of CPC International, Inc., to manufacture its B.t. insecticides, ending a similar agreement with Bio Synthetics, Inc., which had been producing Mycogen's insecticides at its Kingstree, South Carolina, plant since 1988. Mycogen also reached a cross-licensing agreement with Ciba Seeds, a division of the Ciba Geigy Corporation, and the company's biopesticides were licensed for commercial use in France, Mexico and Canada, giving it a presence in 50 countries around the world. In addition, there was encouraging news on the regulatory front, where the U.S. government announced a program to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and encourage the development of "reduced-risk" alternatives.
- 1994 The company was granted a broad U.S. patent that covered the gene sequencing method developed by Mycogen, and used by all other agricultural biotechnology companies, to modify B.t. bacteria to allow it to imprint crop plants with built-in protection from insects.
- 1995 Mycogen acquired the corn and sorghum seed business of the Delta & Pine Land Co., reorganized its four seed companies into a single Mycogen Plant Sciences Organization and consolidated eight brand names, including Jacques, SIGCO, McCurdy, Agrigene, Golden Acres, ORO and Taylor Evans, into a single Mycogen brand.
- 1995 Mycogen also entered a joint venture with Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., the world's largest seed company, to develop B.t. enhanced, rootworm-resistant crop seeds for soybeans, sunflowers, canola and sorghum. The deal was worth an estimated $51 million to Mycogen. In addition, the company signed an agreement with Cargill Hybrid Seeds to distribute Mycogen's insect-resistant seed corn.
- 1996 DowElanco, then a joint venture of the Dow Chemical Co. and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., acquired 46 percent of Mycogen's stock from Lubrizo. In December, that stake was upped to 55 percent, giving DowElanco control of the company. Although Mycogen insisted it would continue to operate as an independent, public company, as majority owner DowElanco controlled five of nine seats on the board of directors.
Soon after DowElanco gained control of the company, Mycogen traded its $8 million European seed business for an 18 percent interest in Verneuil Holding Co.
- 1997 Jerry Caulder, resigned as chairman of Mycogen, a post he had held since 1989. He was replaced by Nickolas D. Hain, DowElanco's vice-president of global growth, who had negotiated the deal to acquire a majority interest in Mycogen. Hain said Caulder, who remained on the board as chairman emeritus, "not only shaped the vision and built the company, he was instrumental in creating a new industry."
[edit] Today
Headquarters of Mycogen Seeds are located in Indianapolis IN. Mycogen produces, markets and sells hybrid seed corn. The company also markets and sells sorghum, sunflower, soybean, alfalfa, and canola.
