- Planned transaction expands Ginkgo's horizontal platform
capabilities to support agricultural biologicals R&D from
discovery through formulation and early field trials and will offer
services to customers of all sizes in the agriculture
industry
- Under the proposed transaction, Ginkgo to acquire Bayer's
West Sacramento agricultural
biologicals site and team, adding a 175,000-square-foot R&D
facility with pilot scale fermentation, formulation, and greenhouse
facilities, along with access to Bayer's large agricultural strain
collection
- Joyn Bio, the joint-venture
between Ginkgo and Leaps by Bayer formed in 2017, to be integrated
into the parent companies, with the core technology platform
becoming part of Ginkgo's platform and key products being advanced
by Bayer in a new collaboration
- Bayer to be an anchor customer of Ginkgo's agricultural
biologicals offering, signing a follow-on multi-year platform
collaboration deal to enable continued development of Joyn Bio's flagship nitrogen fixation program
and launching new programs in fields including next-generation crop
protection and carbon sequestration
BOSTON, April 22,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the
leading horizontal platform for cell programming, today announced
plans to significantly expand its platform capabilities in
agricultural biologicals, from discovery to field. These
capabilities will be built through a series of transactions, in
which Ginkgo will acquire Bayer's 175,000-square-foot West
Sacramento Biologics Research & Development site, team, and
internal discovery and lead optimization platform as well as
integrate the R&D platform assets from Joyn Bio, a joint-venture between Ginkgo and
Leaps by Bayer formed in 2017. Bayer will be the anchor
agricultural customer of Ginkgo's expanded platform, entering into
a significant new multi-year collaboration which will focus on the
advancement of Joyn's marquee nitrogen fixation program, as well as
new programs in areas such as crop protection and carbon
sequestration. While Ginkgo will continue to evaluate the operating
expenditures required to launch and scale its expanded agricultural
capabilities following these transactions, it is expected that the
cash proceeds from this multi-year collaboration with Bayer may
significantly offset such anticipated expenditures. The proposed
transactions are projected to close before the end of 2022, pending
the finalization of definitive agreements and subject to regulatory
approvals.
Agricultural biologicals are a rapidly growing category of
solutions that offer tremendous sustainability and performance
benefits. Against the backdrop of rising fertilizer costs and novel
pest and disease threats, growers are calling for new agriculture
solutions that can increase yields while decreasing their
environmental footprint. While chemical and plant trait solutions
have long been the dominant solutions on the market, demand for
biologicals has increased dramatically.
"Bayer, Ginkgo, and Joyn share a common vision, which is to
enable biological products to be a critical part of the solution to
the world's greatest agricultural and environmental challenges,"
said Jason Kelly, CEO and cofounder
of Ginkgo Bioworks. "We are incredibly impressed by the success of
the Joyn team and the deep expertise of Bayer's West Sacramento
R&D team, and are thrilled to have them join Ginkgo as we build
deep end-to-end capabilities in ag biologicals on top of our large
scale horizontal platform. We believe we're bringing together the
most innovative minds in agriculture with the experience of a team
that has brought several effective biological products to market
for Bayer - opening this platform up to the world has the potential
to truly revolutionize the field."
Bayer has long been committed to expanding its product offerings
to benefit growers around the world. In recent years, the company
has made a strategic decision to focus on becoming the preferred
research, development and commercial partner in the biologicals
segment, while leveraging an "open innovation" model to be able to
partner broadly with disruptive discovery companies. Through this
agreement, Bayer is committing to a significant multi-year
collaboration, advancing multiple programs including a marquee
nitrogen fixation program as well as a suite of other programs in
areas such as next-generation crop protection and carbon
sequestration.
"Biological solutions will play a critical role in the
agricultural innovation ecosystem, and we see tremendous
opportunity for biologicals to add even more value for agriculture
in the future because they are effective, and offer environmental
benefits that producers want," said Bob
Reiter, Head of R&D for Bayer Crop Science. "Bayer is
moving to strengthen its product development and commercial
positioning through strategic research partnerships for new product
development, and we are excited to deepen our relationship with
Ginkgo, which we expect to be a key partner for many years to
come."
Over the last five years, Joyn has developed a new class of
microbial solutions in partnership with Bayer and Ginkgo. Through
this transaction, Joyn's product concepts will be advanced by
Bayer, with a particular focus on its nitrogen fixation program,
while the platform assets and supporting team members will be
integrated into Ginkgo as the company expands its support for
agricultural biologicals. Ginkgo will also offer these capabilities
to a wide variety of customers in agriculture as it expects to
provide a full stack of services in this field, allowing companies
of all sizes to access best-in-class lab-to-field translation
expertise, greenhouse capacity, formulation capabilities, and pilot
fermentation.
"With support from Ginkgo and Bayer, Joyn Bio has made groundbreaking discoveries
across a number of programs that will be foundational for future
work in biologicals," said Michael
Miille, CEO of Joyn Bio. "We
are excited to take this platform to the next stage, with Bayer
advancing key programs to the next level and working with Ginkgo to
open our capabilities up to a broader set of commercial
partners."
The parties expect to sign a definitive agreement and proceed
toward an efficient close, supported by ongoing integration
planning efforts. More details and updates will be provided when
available.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to
enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program
computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology
applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to
industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively
supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12
pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization and therapeutics
discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.
About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core
competencies in the life science fields of health care and
nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people
and planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major
challenges presented by a growing and aging global population.
Bayer is committed to drive sustainable development and generate a
positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group
aims to increase its earning power and create value through
innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust,
reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2021, the
Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 44.1 billion euros. R&D expenses before
special items amounted to 5.3 billion
euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.
About Joyn
Bio
Joyn Bio is
bringing synthetic biology to agriculture for better ways to feed
the world. A joint venture between Leaps by Bayer and Ginkgo
Bioworks, Joyn engineers microbes to improve naturally occurring
processes like nitrogen fixation, bringing growers more reliable
solutions for crop protection and nutrition and reducing
environmental impact. Joyn Bio
brings together leading scientists with diverse backgrounds at its
two sites in Boston, Massachusetts
and Woodland, California. For more
information, visit www.joynbio.com.
Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This
press release contains certain forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements
regarding Ginkgo's expectations that the transaction will close
before the end of 2022, the potential success, including the
potential impact to Ginkgo's future operating expenditures, and
objectives of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming
platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified
by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect,"
"anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future,"
"opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be,"
"will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions.
Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other
statements about future events that are based on current
expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks
and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to
differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press
release, including but not limited to: (i) the effect of Ginkgo's
business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Soaring
Eagle") on Ginkgo's business relationships, performance, and
business generally, (ii) risks that the business combination
disrupts current plans of Ginkgo and potential difficulties in
Ginkgo's employee retention, (iii) the outcome of any legal
proceedings that may be instituted against Ginkgo related to its
business combination with Soaring Eagle, (iv) volatility in the
price of Ginkgo's securities now that it is a public company due to
a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and
highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to
operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in
laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business and changes in the
combined capital structure, (v) the ability to implement business
plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of
the business combination, and identify and realize additional
opportunities, (vi) the risk of downturns in demand for products
using synthetic biology, (vii) the unpredictability of the duration
of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for COVID-19 testing and
the commercial viability of our COVID-19 testing business, and
(viii) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to
advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in
industry demands, standards and regulations. The foregoing list of
factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the
foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described
in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form
10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC") on March 29, 2022 and other
documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These
filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to
update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does
not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.
GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR
CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA
CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
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