Devgen is a

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

-based multinational

agricultural biotechnology Agricultural biotechnology, also known as agritech, is an area of agricultural science involving the use of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic engineering, molecular markers, molecular diagnostics, vaccines, and tissue culture, to ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

. It uses biotechnology and

molecular breeding Molecular breeding is the application of molecular biology tools, often in plant breedingVoosen P (2009Molecular Breeding Makes Crops Hardier and More Nutritious Markers, knockouts and other technical advances improve breeding without modifying gen ...

technologies to develop varieties of

food crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponics ...

s. Its technology is marketed by outlicensing or selling seeds in India and South-East Asia. Devgen also develops

nematicide A nematicide is a type of chemical pesticide used to kill plant-parasitic nematodes. Nematicides have tended to be broad-spectrum toxicants possessing high volatility or other properties promoting migration through the soil. Aldicarb (Temik), a ca ...

History

RNA interference spin off

Devgen was founded as a spin-off of

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

and The Flemish Institute for Biotechnology in 1997 to commercialize

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

it licensed on the use of

RNAi RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

s and its use for screening for

therapeutics A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

and/or their targets. Its work focused on the nematode ''C. elegans'' as a model system, which functions as a model for human diseases, but also as a model for the kind of nematodes that are agricultural pests. The company raised 37 million Euro in its first three years, first from the GIMV and Abingworth investment companies at its launch, then from the IWT, then from another round of private investors including

ING Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...

, KBC, Life Science Partners, Sofindex, Rendex and Mercator, then from Polytechnos and Capricorn.Johan Albrecht, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Universiteit Gent Juni 200
Biotech Cluster Project Biopharmaceutical Network Dynamics in Flanders and Sector Competitiveness
The received several subsequent grants from IWT. Devgen also struck R&D collaborations over its first six years, first with

Janssen Pharmaceutica Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and wholly-owned by Johnson & Johnson. It was founded in 1953 by Paul Janssen. In 1961, Janssen Pharmaceuticals was purchased by New Jersey-based American ...

in 1998 in the field of target discovery for drugs and later with

Merck Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including: * the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668 ** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...

and

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

in the same field, and in 1998 it collaborated with

FMC Corporation FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated as an insecticide producer in 1883 and later diversified into other industries. In 1941 at the beginning of US involvemen ...

for the discovery of novel insecticides, and then with other ag companies like

Sumitomo The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period. History The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Masa ...

Syngenta Syngenta AG is a provider of agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and pesticides with its management headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Syngenta was founded in 2 ...

Pioneer Hi-Bred Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. is a U.S.-based producer of seeds for agriculture. They are a major producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including genetically modified crops with insect and herbicide resistance. As of 2019, Pi ...

. Devgen brought in 23 million Euro in funding from these partnerships through 2003. In 2004 it opened a second office in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and moved into a new research building on the Ardoyen Technology Campus.

Seed company

In June 2005, employing close to 100 people, Devgen raised more than 33 million euro in a successful IPO on Euronext Brussels. Also in 2005, it established rice breeding stations in Kenya; it completed its first field trials there in 2006. In 2005 it also launched field trials of its

in Europe. In early 2007, Devgen and

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in th ...

announced a five-year collaboration in which the two companies would share technologies, with Devgen focusing the shared technology on the development of rice and other small cereal grains, and Monsanto using them to develop new traits for corn, cotton, and soybeans. Later in 2007, Devgen acquired Monsanto's subsidiaries in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines that developed and sold hybrid seeds for 4 crops:

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...

and pearl

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

, for about $26M. Shortly thereafter, it announced its intention to spin off its pharma division.First Word Pharma. November 5th, 200
Devgen announces the intention to close its pharma division and to fully focus on the development of its agro business
/ref> In late 2008 it fired its 19 pharma employees, leaving about 200 remaining in its ag businesses. In 2010, some former Devgen pharma employees started a pharmaceutical company, Amakem NV, to develop

kinase inhibitor A protein kinase inhibitor is a type of enzyme inhibitor that blocks the action of one or more protein kinases. Protein kinases are enzymes that phosphorylate (add a phosphate, or PO4, group) to a protein and can modulate its function. The phospha ...

s they had discovered at Devgen.BioPharmaceutiques 200
Successful start-up for Amakem
/ref> In 2009, Devgen and Monsanto broadened their collaboration, with Monsanto paying Devgen €20 million cash for broader rights to use Devgen's technology. Devgen's nematicide

Iprodione Iprodione is a hydantoin fungicide and nematicide. Application Iprodione is used on crops affected by Botrytis bunch rot, Brown rot, Sclerotinia and other fungal diseases in plants. It is currently applied in a variety of crops: fruit, vegetable ...

, was approved in the Turkish market under the brandname Devguard for use on tomatoes and cucumbers in 2009, was approved in Europe in 2010, and was approved in the US as Enclosure for use in commercial peanut production in May 2010. Devgen has a method-of-use patents for the use of iprodine to kill nematodes.

Takeover by Syngenta

In September 2012,

placed a bid of 403 million euros ($522 million) for the acquisition of Devgen as part of a wave of large ag companies buying biotech companies. The offer came six months after the companies had signed an agreement under which Syngenta would have developed sprayable RNAi-based crop protection products based on Devgen's technology.Marie Daghlian for The Burrill Report. Sept 20, 2012
Syngenta Pushes into Biologic Pest Control
/ref> The rationale for Syngenta to acquire Devgen was stated by Syngenta spokeswoman Jennifer Gough as follows: "It's a very important expansion of our rice strategy, one of our eight key crops", she said. "We are also buying their competence in RNAi technology which will be relevant for us across a broad range of crops." Devgen's shares were delisted from the NYSE in February 2013, and the acquisition was completed in December 2013.The Hindu. December 15, 2013
Syngenta completes acquisition of Devgen
/ref>

References

{{Agriculture footer Genetic engineering and agriculture Multinational companies Seed companies Biotechnology companies of Belgium Agricultural organisations based in Belgium Companies based in East Flanders