Icoria to Focus on Health Care, Biomarker-Enabled Drug Development
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. and ST. LOUIS, March 24 /PRNewswire-
FirstCall/ -- Today, Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Icoria, Inc.
(Nasdaq: ICOR) announced that Monsanto has acquired selected agricultural
assets of biotechnology research company Icoria for $6.75 million in cash,
installment and milestone payments, plus additional considerations.
The transaction closed yesterday, with the transition to be fully
implemented by May 9, 2005.
The acquired assets are related to the field of transgenic traits for
agriculture, which has been the focus of research conducted under an existing
six-year, $55-million agreement signed in 1999 between Monsanto and Icoria,
formerly Paradigm Genetics. Under this agreement, Icoria analyzed genes in its
Arabidopsis thaliana GeneFunction Factory(TM) platform. Icoria met virtually
all of the financial milestones under this agreement, and many genes have
moved into Monsanto's corn and soybean research-and-development (R&D) testing
pipeline. Such genes may affect valuable agronomic traits, such as increased
growth rates and stress resistance.
By acquiring those assets of Icoria that are focused on
agriculture-related functional genomics and transgenic applications, Monsanto
gains exclusive access to Icoria's advanced discovery platform. In addition,
Monsanto will assume occupancy and lease obligations for a building in
Icoria's research facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C., in which Icoria
has conducted its GeneFunction Factory(TM) research. Monsanto will offer jobs
to a large portion of Icoria's skilled workforce currently involved in the
agriculture-based functional genomics program.
"Over the past five years, Icoria's contributions in functional genomics
have been an important part of Monsanto's industry-leading R&D program," said
Stephen Padgette, Ph.D., vice president of biotechnology for Monsanto.
"Today's announced transaction allows us to bring Icoria's valuable
capabilities in-house, contributing to Monsanto's ability to identify and
develop new genes for crop products in areas like agronomic traits, enhanced
nutritional content and improved yield properties."
Icoria will use proceeds from the sale to accelerate development of its
health care business and to fund an internal drug and diagnostics discovery
program focused on diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders.
"The sale of these assets, the reduction of our headcount by more than a
third and the assignment of our remaining five-year lease on our agricultural
research facility reduces our expenses dramatically without significantly
reducing Icoria's ability to generate revenue," said Heinrich Gugger, Ph.D.,
president and CEO of Icoria. "It also allows Icoria to aggressively pursue
its health care strategy."
About Icoria
Icoria, Inc. is a biotech company that uses gene expression, metabolomics
and tissue feature profiling to identify biomarkers to accelerate drug
discovery. In addition to its internal drug discovery program, the company
provides services to clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech, agriculture,
academic and public health research sectors, and has major contracts with the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred
International (a subsidiary of DuPont). Icoria also has a major grant from
the National Institute of Standards & Technology's Advanced Technology
Program. For more information, visit http://www.icoria.com .
About Monsanto
Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) is a leading global provider of technology-
based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and
food quality. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at
http://www.monsanto.com .
This press release contains forward-looking statements including but not
limited to Icoria's expectations for the sale of its agriculture business and
its drug development program. Such forward-looking statements are based on
management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks,
factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and
performance to differ materially from those referred to in the forward-looking
statements. These risks, factors and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to, Icoria's early stage of development, history of net losses,
technological and product development uncertainties, reliance on research
collaborations, uncertainty of additional funding and ability to protect its
patents and proprietary rights. Certain of these and other risks are
identified in Icoria's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December
31, 2003 and in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
September 30, 2004, each filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements
after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results
or to changes in our expectations, except as may be required by law.
SOURCE Icoria, Inc.; Monsanto Company
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Related links:
http://www.icoria.com
http://www.monsanto.com
CONTACT:
Media/Public Relations: Icoria, Inc.,
+1-919-425-2999; or Bryan Hurley of Monsanto Company,
+1-314-694-8387
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