Plant Health Care (LON:PHC), a leading provider of novel patent-protected biological products to global agriculture markets with a strong track record of successful commercialisation of new technologies, has today announced the granting of the first US patent on its novel PREtec peptide technology.
Highlights:
– Plant Health Care has filed more than 50 patent applications worldwide for its PREtec peptide technology since 2012
– The first of these patents has now been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
– The patent provides protection for a series of PREtec peptides in a wide range of agricultural uses
– Additional patents are expected to be granted over the coming months
– The Company is planning to commercialise PREtec peptides into market opportunities worth more than $5bn
Plant Health Care is developing novel peptide products from the PREtec (Plant Response Elicitor) platform. These products act as ‘vaccines for plants’; they stimulate the plant to defend itself from stress, such as disease and drought, leading to better quality and higher yield at harvest. Derived from natural proteins, PREtec peptides are a novel, environmentally friendly approach to protecting crops and increasing yields, compatible with mainstream agricultural practices. The Company is initially targeting market opportunities worth more than $5bn.
US patent No. 10,470,461, issued November 12, 2019, claims a large number of unique response elicitor peptides, as well as their use in combination with other agricultural products to enhance disease resistance, improve plant growth, and impart tolerance to both biotic stresses and abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, and excess soil salinity.
Zhongmin Wei, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer for Plant Health Care and inventor of the PREtec technology said, “I am pleased that the USPTO has recognized the patentability of the response elicitor peptide sequences and their use for agricultural production. This is the first of a series of patents that we expect will issue shortly. Plant Health Care is carving out a dominant patent position around the use of response elicitor peptides in agriculture.”
Chris Richards, CEO of Plant Health Care, said, “Receiving this patent is another significant milestone in our path to bringing PREtec peptides to commercial sales. Alongside our recently announced progress at scaling up manufacture of our lead peptide, PHC279, and the exciting results shown for the control of Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) in Brazil, this further boosts our confidence about the commercial potential for PREtec based products. We are preparing to launch this novel technology directly to markets in USA, Brazil and other countries, once regulatory permits are in place.”
