Mars and Pairwise Collaborate to Accelerate Cacao Research and Development

Mars, Incorporated has licensed Pairwise's Fulcrum® gene editing tools for cacao research and development. This licensing agreement grants Mars access to Pairwise's CRISPR tools, including the SHARC™ enzyme. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ platform encompasses gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential. This capability significantly accelerates the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods, allowing for the activation or deactivation of characteristics and fine-tuning traits, much like adjusting a dimmer switch to achieve optimal results.  

Mars aims to develop this advanced plant breeding technology to improve cacao production and effectively tackle agricultural challenges. The ultimate goal is to help address the pressures cacao faces globally from climate variability, plant diseases and environmental stresses. This strategic initiative underscores the potential of this technology to drive meaningful advancements in agriculture.  

"At Mars, we believe CRISPR has the potential to improve crops in ways that support and strengthen global supply chains," said Carl Jones, Plant Sciences Director at Mars. "Our focus is to transparently and responsibly conduct CRISPR research in plant science that helps crops better adapt to climate challenges, disease pressures and resource constraints."  

"We're pleased to provide Mars with access to our Fulcrum™ platform for their cacao research and development initiatives," said Ian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Pairwise. "Plant breeding innovation has the potential to help address important agricultural challenges, and we look forward to supporting Mars' research goals."  

The Pairwise Fulcrum® platform includes gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential to greatly accelerate the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods.
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About Pairwise  

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum™ Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Indianapolis and Durham, N.C. (Sept 17th 2024) – Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), a global leader in agricultural technology and Pairwise, a technology company pioneering the application of gene editing in food and agriculture, announced a collaboration today to accelerate the delivery of advanced gene editing solutions to farmers, ultimately benefitting both the environment and everyday consumers. Gene editing uses a plant’s own DNA to make precise improvements, providing growers with another critical tool to keep pace with the challenges facing food production, including those presented by climate change.

Anchoring the collaboration is Corteva’s $25 million equity investment in Pairwise, made under the umbrella of Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform focused on accessing agricultural innovation to drive value creation. The investment aims to help expand the reach and benefits of gene editing to a wide variety of staple and specialty crops.

In addition, Corteva and Pairwise have formed a joint venture to accelerate and expand the delivery of advanced gene edited technologies aimed at increasing crop yield for food, fuel and fiber production, despite increasing climate change.

The joint venture, which spans five years, will leverage both companies’ advanced gene editing capabilities to accelerate the pace of gene edited products by generating and evaluating unique gene edits across multiple traits in a range of crops. Building on Corteva’s longstanding leadership in plant breeding and genetics, the companies will collaborate on the development and deployment of gene edited products that are more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change.

“Gene editing is a transformational technology for agriculture that will advance climate resilience in food production and drive the increased farm productivity required to effectively feed and fuel the world’s growing population,” said Sam Eathington, Corteva’s chief technology and digital officer. “As a gene editing technology leader ourselves, we are proud to work with Pairwise to accelerate the benefits of gene editing not only to farmers, but ultimately to those who rely on the availability of sustainably grown and affordable food – and that’s all of us.”

“Gene editing is poised to revolutionize agriculture, enabling the cultivation of crops that are more adaptive to climate change, are more nutritious and convenient for consumers, and deliver greater economics for growers,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “Through our Fulcrum™ Platform, we’re proud to be at the helm of applying this transformative technology in agriculture and, alongside partners like Corteva, accelerate the realization of these benefits across global stakeholders.”

Pairwise is a leader in using gene editing to make differentiated crops. Last year, the company launched the first CRISPR food in North America, and has multiple products in development across significant crops, including corn, soy, wheat, canola, blackberries, and more. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform includes proprietary gene editing tools that provide the ability to not only turn a characteristic on or off but also, with base editing and related technologies, “tune” it to find it’s sweet spot for highest performance. Pairwise’s novel editing tools allow scientists to precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding alone.

This is the first joint venture and major equity investment in gene editing made by Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform. The investment reflects Corteva’s nearly century-long track record (through its Pioneer brand) of championing innovation through partnerships, including with the global scientific community.

‍About Corteva:

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry- leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

Media Contacts: 

Corteva:

Bethany Shively

Bethany.shively@corteva.com

(202) 997-9438

Pairwise, a food and agriculture company known for bringing the first gene-edited food to the U.S. market, and Bayer today announced a new five-year, multi-million dollar agreement focused on innovations in short-stature corn. This new program leverages Pairwise’s Fulcrum™ platform and builds on the success of the companies’ initial five-year collaboration for corn, soy, wheat, cotton, and canola.

The upcoming collaboration between Pairwise and Bayer will be focused on optimizing and enhancing gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System. Short-stature corn – with a targeted height of 30 to 40 percent less than traditional corn – is an innovative new approach to growing corn and offers a number of sustainability benefits, including protections from crop loss due to increasingly severe weather events and extreme winds brought about by climate change. Short-stature corn also allows for more precise application of inputs throughout the growing season, sustainably growing more through reduced risk of crop loss.

“Pairwise’s proprietary base editing tools allow for specific changes at virtually any location in the genome, which has the potential to make targeted and much needed improvements in agriculture,” said Bob Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. "These kinds of new genomic techniques are extraordinarily focused and produce results much more quickly and precisely than the conventional breeding process, ensuring that we can accelerate the delivery of solutions that growers need."

The initial five-year collaboration focused on corn, soy, wheat, cotton and canola with the aim of empowering producers to grow more with fewer inputs on the same amount of land. The partnership, which concluded in June 2023, resulted in 27 novel traits being transferred into Bayer’s testing programs. Results of the program demonstrated significant commercial value including edited corn phenotypes with a 20 percent increase in kernel row numbers, which could lead to significantly more yield on the same number of acres. Another outcome has been edited soy that reduces the severity of Asian soybean rust, potentially reducing the need for fungicides to combat the disease and protecting the potential for higher yields.

These, and other significant achievements, were made possible through the development of custom gene editing tools by Pairwise. These include REDRAW™, or RNA encoded DNA replacement of alleles with CRISPR, a precise templated editing toolbox that can make any type of small edit at CRISPR-targeted sites. Another tool is SHARC™, a proprietary enzyme that works well for cutting, base editing, and REDRAW editing. These tools will also be used in the new collaboration focused on advancing short-stature corn.

“We look forward to continuing our work with Bayer, with new emphasis on contributing to their novel smart corn system,” added Tom Adams, Co-founder and CEO at Pairwise. “Working closely with Bayer on furthering this revolution in corn gives us the market reach to enable our technology innovations to more quickly adjust to the biggest challenge of our time: the changing climate.”

Pairwise has already demonstrated the successful use of CRISPR and other emerging technologies to accelerate the delivery of new products to markets, and recently launched its first product, Conscious™ Greens into the U.S. foodservice channel. Through the leading use of cutting-edge technologies, and due to the efficiency of the company’s Fulcrum Platform, the product was advanced from concept to commercialization in just four years. In addition, Pairwise works with other innovative companies and has licensed its IP for applications in additional crops of global importance, including licensing elements of the Fulcrum Platform to Tropic Biosciences for applications in banana and coffee.

About Bayer:

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2022, the Group employed around 101,000 people and had sales of 50.7 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 6.2 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

Bayer Media inquiries:

Alex Hennig

+49 175 30-89736

alexander.hennig@bayer.com

Forward-Looking Statements: This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Bayer Media Inquiries:

Alex Hennig

+49 175 30-89736

Alexander.Hennig@bayer.com

Bayer Investor Inquiries:

Bayer Investor Relations Team

+49 214 30-72704

ir@bayer.com

www.bayer.com/en/investors/ir-team