Industry News

PowerPollen®, an ag tech company focused on improving agricultural productivity through improved pollination, announced results of an in-field study to pollinate seed crop corn plants using pollen preserved for an entire year at ultra-low temperature. Their success in forming fully seeded ears of corn with cryogenic pollen thereby demonstrates the long-term viability of preserved pollen to further expand breeding opportunities, improve land utilization in seed corn production and create a new revenue stream for pollen production.

Renewable Energy Group, Inc. announced today that it plans to undertake a capacity expansion of its Geismar, Louisiana biorefinery by 250 million gallons annually to 340 million gallons per year. This announcement follows a thorough review and site selection process. Construction should begin in mid to late 2021 with target mechanical completion date in late 2023. 

Bristol Myers Squibb and MyoKardia, Inc. today announced a definitive merger agreement under which Bristol Myers Squibb will acquire MyoKardia for $13.1 billion, or $225.00 per share in cash. The transaction was unanimously approved by both the Bristol Myers Squibb and MyoKardia Boards of Directors and is anticipated to close during the fourth quarter of 2020. MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases. Through the transaction, Bristol Myers Squibb gains mavacamten, a potential first-in-class cardiovascular medicine for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (“HCM”), a chronic heart disease with high morbidity and patient impact. 

Aptimmune Biologics Inc., a St. Louis, Missouri-based biotechnology company that focuses on developing swine vaccines, has been working on an ASF vaccine for more than a decade — since the moment Aptimmune’s founder, Dr. Federico Zuckermann, realized that he already had the building blocks for a vaccine. Now, Aptimmune is racing against the clock to throw a wrench into ASF spread overseas — and prevent it from reaching U.S. shores.

Cancer remains a critical public health problem. Access to care continues to be an issue and an even bigger challenge during time of disruption like we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. Join ACS CAN and an expert panel of doctors and professionals across Iowa, for a discussion on access to care during critical times, what we have learned as a cancer community, and how we can work together to protect patient access to care, ensure affordability, and prepare for any future times of disruption.

Eli Lilly and Company and Amgen announced a global antibody manufacturing collaboration to significantly increase the supply capacity available for Lilly's potential COVID-19 therapies. Through this collaboration, the two companies will have the ability to quickly scale up production and serve many more patients around the world should one or more of Lilly's antibody therapies prove successful in clinical testing and receive regulatory approval.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross today announced that 52 organizations — including nonprofits, institutions of higher education, and entrepreneurship-focused organizations — from 36 states will receive grants totaling $35 million to support entrepreneurship, acceleration of company growth, and increased access to risk capital across regional economies.

2020 marks the 45th anniversary of the AAAS Forum on Science & Technology Policy. We will gather to discuss major current challenges affecting science, policy and society, as well as their intersectionality.
 

Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced the release of the SureSelect XT HS2 RNA Reagent Kit. This solution features a modular design that enables a simple and parallel approach for both RNA and DNA samples, allowing customers to streamline and consolidate their workflow without losing time optimizing different kits for different sample types. It marks the latest development in Agilent’s ongoing effort to improve NGS applications and workflows, leveraging the performance and versatility of XT HS2 chemistry.

“In order to incentivize innovative medical breakthroughs, the federal government must ensure those breakthrough technologies are covered by Medicare,” said Scott Whitaker, AdvaMed president and CEO. “We are pleased that this proposed rule gets us closer to this goal as it would help ensure the patients who need these innovative technologies have access to them. We thank HHS Secretary Azar and CMS Administrator Verma for their leadership. The Administration’s continued focus on the value of medical technology and innovative breakthroughs will without question help to alleviate human suffering and save lives.”

ADM has identified six emerging behavioral changes that will power innovation and growth in the months ahead. “Consumers’ attitudes, priorities and behaviors are shifting significantly,” said Ana Ferrell, VP of Marketing, ADM. “This evolution is providing a unique opportunity for forward-looking food and beverage companies to bring a suite of trailblazing new products to market.”

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE today shared additional Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity data from their ongoing U.S. study of the BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program against SARS-CoV-2, which has advanced into Phase 2/3 evaluation. The newly released manuscript describes key safety and immunogenicity data from the U.S. Phase 1 trial for the BNT162b2 vaccine candidate, which at30μg recorded 7 days after the second dose elicited SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing geometric mean titers (GMTs) in younger adults (18-55 years of age) that were 3.8 times the GMT of a panel of 38 sera of SARS-CoV2 convalescent patients, and in older adults (65-85 years of age) the vaccine candidate elicited a neutralizing GMT 1.6 times the GMT of the same panel, demonstrating strong immunogenicity in younger and older adults.

Cellular Engineering Technologies (CET), a biotechnology company located in Coralville, Iowa, announces that it has received a Phase 2 SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop commercially safer and more reproducible pluripotent stem cells. CET, which was co-founded by Dr. Alan Moy and Anant Kamath, received official notice that their grant entitled "Improving the Reproducibility and Genetic Stability of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) and Differentiated Cells Through Oncogene-Free Reprogramming and Fully Human Growth Factors," was funded this month.

PowerPollen announced the close of its $13 million Series B funding round to accelerate global adoption in corn seed production and expand innovation to corn grain, wheat and rice. The round will expand PowerPollen’s ability to help customers increase yield and enable product innovation across a wider diversity of hybrids by preserving and applying pollen on-demand. New investor Ag Ventures Alliance and several return investors, including Iowa Corn Growers Association, materially participated in the round.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States, Kent Corporation—an Iowa-based food and beverage manufacturer—was ready. In fact, the company had been ready for 11 years. Back in 2009, Kent Corporation implemented a pandemic response protocol. Prepared by the company’s own human resources group, it was designed to help the company find solutions to novel problems, implement procedures and distribute information internally within the company.

An Iowa State University spinoff headquartered in Slater, Gross-Wen Technologies has a patented algae system known as the revolving algal biofilm treatment system marketed under the RABTM brand. The technology enables the effective and sustainable use of algae to remove nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater. It can also be used with clean water to grow high value algae (“clean algae”) for various uses to include nutraceuticals, human food and animal feeds.

Kemin Industries, a global ingredient manufacturer that strives to sustainably transform the quality of life every day for 80 percent of the world with its products and services, has acquired a U.S. patent application for a method to control African Swine Fever virus (ASFv) in feed and feed ingredients using Sal CURB® Liquid Antimicrobial – a global pathogen control product manufactured by Kemin.

The clinical trial has completed full immunizations of the company's investigational HIV vaccine regimen. Learn what this means for the future of fighting the disease—and also for the creation of a potential vaccine for COVID-19.

At Cargill, managing climate impact is a top priority, and the company is making progress in its operations with new renewable energy projects. Today, Cargill is announcing ten new global renewable energy projects, most of which will be online in the next year. Cargill currently uses 15 different renewable energy sources around the world, including wind and solar power.

Comprehensive parasite protection is an essential part of canine overall health and well-being. “Our veterinary medicines, including parasiticides, and vaccines continue to transform the animal health industry and further solidify our position in the U.S. Companion Animal category,” said Rick DeLuca, president, Merck Animal Health. “The extensive breadth and depth of our product portfolio enhances our offerings of comprehensive pet care solutions, which provide a full range of complementary solutions for our customers to improve the health and well-being of animals and the people who care for them.”

Leading animal nutrition firm BIOMIN has recently announced its involvement in a 5-year, €6 million EU-backed research consortium effort to decrease the application of antibiotics in pigs.

The Iowa Business Council’s second-quarter Economic Outlook Survey for 2020 shows some improvement in what the managers of the states’ largest businesses expect in the coming months. IBC executive director Joe Murphy says it’s a modest improvement. He says the overall score in overall economic outlook index rose to 41.25 — which is an increase of 3.75 points from the first quarter. 

My plan for this blog was to cover the two largest categories of U.S. raised food fish, Trout and Catfish, in greater detail.  However, I recently had the opportunity to attend a virtual conference sponsored by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) on the 20th of May. According to their reports, “approximately 900 global customers and soybean industry representatives from 60 countries” attended the conference. The subject of the conference was “COVID-19 and the Implications to Aquaculture”.   

Iowa Biotechnology Association (IowaBio) and Bio Nebraska announced today that their Animal Health in the Heartland symposium will be hosted virtually on Wed., Aug. 18 and Thurs., Aug. 19. The symposium will be held via a Zoom format that will allow attendees to visit Tracks featuring presentations that support the symposium’s focus on whole animal health.

Bayer Animal Health is boosting its solution offerings for shrimp and other warm-water aquaculture species through supply and distribution agreements with water treatment technology suppliers, Cytozyme Laboratories Inc. (“Cytozyme”) and Chengdu Kehongda Technology Co., Ltd (“KEHONDA”), as well as farm management technology provider, XpertSea Solutions Inc (“XpertSea”).

Pfizer Inc. announced the establishment of the Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative, through which Pfizer will invest up to $500 million in biotechnology companies to help provide funding and access to Pfizer’s scientific expertise to ensure continuity of the biotechnology companies’ most promising clinical development programs.

Corteva Agriscience and PowerPollen, an Iowa-based ag tech company that developed the first and only scalable pollination technology for commodity crops, announced a commercial agreement expanding the use of pollination-on-demand technology, enabling increased flexibility and productivity for Corteva’s commercial corn seed production.

Metabolic Technologies, LLC is pleased to announce that we have become a member of the Natural Products Association (NPA). The NPA strives to bring a broader, more accessible marketplace for natural products that can improve the quality of life for consumers.

The high protein feed ingredient is produced using Fluid Quip Technologies’ patented Maximized Stillage Co-products (MSC™) system which adds a high value product to the Company’s portfolio, and is expected to provide an initial uplift of approximately 15 to 20 cents per gallon to the overall margin structure. The newly constructed MSC system at Shenandoah represents a $38 million investment. Shenandoah now has capacity to produce up to 50 thousand tons of high protein feed ingredients annually and has increased the annual corn oil production capacity at Shenandoah by 20%.

An insurance company in the early 2000s noticed workers inside the Diamond V plant in Cedar Rapids, a maker of animal supplements from fermented ingredients, simply weren’t getting sick as often as their spouses or the company’s office workers. The insurer and an independent immunologist investigated and confirmed that the factory workers had healthier immune systems.

Kent Corporation’s CEO, Gage Kent, attended the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement signing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Jan. 29 as a guest of Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. Kent Corporation actively supported the USMCA and those who worked hard on behalf of producers, particularly those in border states, the upper Midwest and New England to help open important markets to their products.

Next week, an experiment will be set up see if algae can successfully remove phosphorous from Chetek’s wastewater before the treated effluent is discharged into the Chetek River. The experiment—housed in a small, 20-foot trailer—will be set up by Gross-Wen Technologies at the Chetek Wastewater Treatment Plant on Water Street and will operate for about four months.

Novo Nordisk recently rolled out its promised insulin price cuts, along with a new free emergency supply option. The diabetes drug maker delivered on two earlier announced plans—generic options and a $99-per-month, with-or-without insurance plan—along with an “Immediate Supply” program. Novo's new free, one-time emergency supply would give three vials or two packs of pens, or about a one-month supply, to people with prescriptions who may be at risk of rationing. The My$99Insulin program offers a similar three vials or two packs of pens on any Novo Nordisk insulins at a cost of $99 per month, while the generic or follow-on insulin is priced between $145 and $279 depending on the brand.

More than 250 industry leaders attended the third annual Feather in Her Cap℠ Award dinner where women leaders in the animal health industry were recognized for their achievements and significant contributions to the industry and for mentoring and developing future women leaders. The sold-out gala dinner and award presentation were held in Orlando, Florida.

CRB, a Kansas City-based engineering and architecture firm, has hired a former JE Dunn executive and a longtime public address announcer as its director of business development. Eric Danielson, who previously created a market sector for JE Dunn that grew from an idea to a $400 million business unit, will lead business development for CRB's Midwest division, which includes Kansas City, Dallas and Denver, according to a Tuesday release. In the role, he will help CRB's "sellers-doers" win work and grow the company's presence in the Midwest.

The new factory, inaugurated on September 16, 2019 in southern Bulgaria, increases the group’s production capacity by 30% and allows it to produce its entire portfolio on a single site.