Press Releases

Collaboration Adds Evogene's Gene2Product^TM Computational Technologies

ST. LOUIS, MO, USA and REHOVOT, ISRAEL (November 29, 2011) – Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) and Evogene Ltd. (TASE: EVGN) announced today a one-year extension to their five-year research and development collaboration focused on identifying key plant genes related to yield, environmental stress and fertilizer utilization in corn, soybean, cotton and canola. The companies recently announced the successful completion of the collaboration’s third year.

The collaboration’s gene discovery activities to date have been based on Evogene’s ATHLETE^TM computational technology. As part of the extension, Evogene will add its Gene2Product^TM computational technologies to its gene discovery program, offering an additional approach for enhancing trait efficacy and the development of candidate genes identified under the collaboration.

Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO stated, "We are delighted by this extension of our joint work with Monsanto and in particular with the addition of our Gene2Product computational technologies. We expect that by bringing together Monsanto's development expertise and these new Evogene technologies, in addition to those already utilized in the collaboration, the companies will be able to further address some of the key challenges that the seed industry is facing in the discovery and development process for biotechnology products in agriculture.”

“Continued agricultural innovation is the key to meeting growing global demand, which is why productive collaborations like this one are critical,” added Bob Reiter, Vice President and Global Lead of Biotechnology for Monsanto Company. "By combining Evogene’s innovative gene discovery technologies with Monsanto’s trait development expertise, we’ll ultimately be able to better deliver products to help farmers increase their productivity.”

Additional terms of the collaboration include:

• Evogene will continue to provide Monsanto with candidate genes discovered by Evogene’s computational technologies that are predicted to improve yield, fertilizer utilization and a plant’s reaction to environmental stress. The genes will be validated by Evogene in model plants.
• Monsanto receives exclusive license rights to such candidate genes delivered by Evogene for use in corn, soybean, canola, and cotton.
• As stated above, Evogene will now begin to apply its Gene2Product^TM computational technologies to optimize trait efficacy and the product development process. Evogene will receive additional research payments related to this addition to the collaboration.
• Successful candidate genes that emerge from the collaboration will be commercialized by Monsanto through its branded seed and trait licensing businesses, with Evogene entitled to receive both development milestone payments and royalties.

As part of the original agreement, Monsanto agreed, via a put option exercisable by Evogene, to invest $12 million toward additional equity in Evogene. This arrangement remains in place under a new put option that is exercisable at $12 per share at a later date.

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world's natural resources such as water and energy. To learn more about our business and our commitments, please visit: www.monsanto.com.  Follow our business on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows® at www.monsantoblog.com, or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.

About Evogene

Evogene is a world leading developer of improved plant traits, such as yield and drought tolerance, for a wide diversity of key crops through the use of plant genomics. The company focuses on utilizing its proprietary computational genomic technologies to provide a complete solution for plant trait improvement through combining state of the art biotechnology and advanced breeding methods. These technologies include ATHLETE^TM for gene discovery; Gene2Product^TM for improving trait efficacy and probability of successful development of biotechnology seed products; and EvoBreed^TM for breeding enhancement. Evogene's plant genomics capabilities combine high throughput plant validation systems, field experiments and proprietary genomic data creation.  Evogene is collaborating with world leading seed companies to introduce its improved plant traits into key commercial crops under milestone and royalty bearing agreements. Evogene's headquarters are in Rehovot, Israel, and its stock is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: EVGN). For additional information, please visit Evogene’s website at www.evogene.com.

Evogene is a world leading plant genomics company, utilizing a proprietary integrated technology infrastructure to enhance seed traits underlying crop productivity. Evogene offers a complete solution for crop productivity improvement through biotechnology and advanced breeding using a unique technology infrastructure that is based on deep scientific understandings of plant genomics and proprietary computational capabilities. The Company has strategic collaborations with world-leading agricultural companies to develop improved seed traits in relation to yield and a-biotic stress (such as tolerance to drought), and biotic stress (such as resistance to disease), in key crops as corn, soybean, wheat and rice. In addition, Evogene has earlier stage operations in agriculture chemicals, and seeds focusing on second generation feedstock for biodiesel. The Company's headquarters are located in Rehovot, Israel and is listed for trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: EVGN). For additional information, please visit Evogene.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", “expects”, "intends", “anticipates”, “plans”, “believes”, “scheduled”, “estimates” or words of similar meaning. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Evogene may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which beyond Evogene's control, including, without limitation, those risk factors contained in Evogene’s reports filed with the Israeli Securities Authority. Evogene disclaims any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.