DuPont to acquire Taxon Biosciences

DuPont has announced its intention to acquire microbiome discovery company Taxon Biosciences, thus adding to its own seed and crop protection solutions for agriculture customers. Closing of the acquisition is expected in the second quarter.

Taxon was founded in 2000 with the objective of developing a transformational microbial genomics platform to solve critical challenges in agriculture, energy and health sciences. The company’s intellectual property estate in the field of microbial consortia and microbial genomics products will contribute to the development of new DuPont seed treatment, and foliar and soil application products for important row crops, fruits and vegetables.

DuPont Executive Vice President Jim Borel said his company’s in-house cross-business venture, DuPont Biologicals, “draws on our world-class science and deep understanding of food and production agriculture markets to deliver value-added crop biological solutions”. Taxon’s technology platform for the discovery of microbial-based products will thus strengthen DuPont’s capabilities in biologicals, he added.

According to DuPont Biologicals Director Frank DeGennaro, the company expects to accelerate its time from discovery to market following the Taxon acquisition. He noted that DuPont is “field-testing biological discovery leads identified by Taxon this year”.

Taxon President and CEO Glenn Nedwin said his company is excited to join DuPont in “transforming the future of global agriculture through crop biologicals”. He claimed, “Our unique technology platform, coupled with DuPont’s robust research capabilities and positioning across several markets, makes the integration of Taxon into DuPont a natural fit and will support DuPont’s ability to bring new products to the market, faster.”

Source