Monsanto Co. this week extended its commitment to maintain international regulatory approvals for its first-generation Roundup Ready® biotechnology-enhanced soybean trait through 2021. That's four years longer than the 2017 date Monsanto originally committed to in a December 2009 letter to stakeholders.
The Roundup Ready® 1 trait is scheduled to come off patent in 2014, as Monsanto continues to transition to its Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield® second-generation soybean trait launched in 2009. The company said Monsanto-owned seed brands will be focused entirely on the new soybean trait by 2012.
Monsanto said the additional extension of its commitment to maintain international regulatory approvals for Roundup Ready 1 soybeans will provide farmers, as well as the biotech and grain industries, more than a decade to develop plans and mechanisms to ensure continued import approval support for the trait in export markets after 2021. In a letter to industry stakeholders, Monsanto Vice President for Industry Affairs James Tobin noted the company will work through the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) to develop an "industry-wide solution" to maintaining international regulatory approvals for such legacy biotech-enhanced events. "…[B]iotech trait developers will collaborate with U.S. farm, commodity, seed, grain processing and exporting organizations to address international registration, stewardship and liability issues for all biotech traits after patents expire," Tobin wrote. "Once a long-term industry solution is in place, we (Monsanto) will either use that for Roundup Ready 1 post-patent regulatory maintenance or choose to continue providing that support ourselves." The company said it spends between $1 million and $1.5 million annually to maintain global regulatory approvals for a biotech-enhanced product.
In its announcement, Monsanto also noted that soybean breeders and seed companies will be able to develop and market Roundup Ready 1 soybeans as a generic product starting in 2015. Such biotech trait developers also will be able to develop new, patented stacks using the Roundup Ready 1 trait prior to patent expiration in 2014. For all stacks other than those involving another glyphosate tolerance event, Monsanto said it already has established mechanisms for on-patent development and commercialization of stacks that include the Roundup Ready 1 trait, such as stacks with other herbicide-tolerant or oil-quality genes. For glyphosate-on-glyphosate stacks (i.e., the Optimum® GAT®/RR1 biotech soybean), Monsanto said it recently had offered DuPont a license to develop the stack prior to patent expiration with discontinued royalties on the Roundup Ready 1 trait. Finally, Monsanto said it was amending all Roundup Ready soybean trait licenses to extend through final patent expiration, under which the company will collect royalties on the trait's technology through 2014. Monsanto said it would not use variety patents against U.S. producers who save varieties containing the Roundup Ready 1 trait for planting on their own farms after expiration of the patent. Farmers should check with seed suppliers regarding respective policies for seed varieties developed by other companies that contain the Roundup Ready 1 trait, Monsanto advised.
Click here to access Monsanto's announcement and Tobin's letter.