Trends & Opportunities in AgBio

Ali R. Zareh

Paradigm Bioventures A Lifesciences Incubation and Advisory Company

Agricultural Biotech Drivers

Population Growth Demographics Climate change

Sustainability Environmental concerns

Food security

• >2 billion people are hungry or malnutrition

• By 2050: • Population: 9billion • 70% more food production req’d • Arable land down from 2.2ha/person

to 1.6ha/person • Water & land issues • Climate change: every 1˚C in

nighttime temperature increase reduces rice production by 10%

Agricultural Biotech Enablers

• Technologies: • NGS • Systems biology • MAS • Smart sensors

• Holistic scientific approaches • Metagenomics • Microbiome

• Synthetic biology

• Stem cell research

Ag Tech Investments• US $2.36b invested in 264

deals by 271 investors

• 26 in 2013, and 21 Food and Ag Investment Funds launched in 2014

• 6 Ag focused crowd funding sites launched in 2014

• All major AgBio companies have Strategic Venture arms investing in promising companies.

Ag Tech Investments• US $2.36b invested in 264

deals by 271 investors

• 26 in 2013, and 21 Food and Ag Investment Funds launched in 2014

• 6 Ag focused crowd funding sites launched in 2014

• All major AgBio companies have Strategic Venture arms investing in promising companies.

Ag Tech Investments• US $2.36b invested in 264

deals by 271 investors

• 26 in 2013, and 21 Food and Ag Investment Funds launched in 2014

• 6 Ag focused crowd funding sites launched in 2014

• All major AgBio companies have Strategic Venture arms investing in promising companies.

Agricultural Biotech• Newly approved crops include:

• BT eggplant (Bangladesh), Innate™ potato and HarvXtra alfalfa (US), Drought tolerant sugarcane (Indonesia), Cultivance soybean, virus resistant bean (Brazil), Maize (HT & IR), Vietnam

• Other biotech crops in use: • >10 food and fiber crops are approved for commercial

planting, e.g. white maize (SA), sugar beet & sweet corn (US & Canada), papaya & squash (US), soybean.

• DroughtGard™ tolerant maize planted in the US in 2013, increased >5X to 275k ha

• Next few years: • Up to 70 new products, some with multiple pest/

disease resistance and tolerance to herbicides, • Golden rice, and several other fortified crops, e.g.

bananas being field tested and potentially approved.18m farmers 90% small

US AgBio

• Trials conducted in 130 plant species

• New varieties in peanuts, barley, peas and sugar cane

• Additional increases in traits that improve yield and provide stress resistance

AgBio Challenges

• Public perception

• Regulatory

• Development:10yrs and >US $250m

New models of Innovation• Big companies partnering externally

• BASF Plant Sciences/Botanical Institute of University of Cologne to collaborate on increasing yield of soybean, rice and canola

• BASF PS/Genomine/POSTECH in S. Korea to discovery new genes maximizing yield in staple food crops, e.g. rice & corn

• Bayer/Nature Source Genetics: pre-breeding & enhancement of corn germ plasm

• Monsanto/GrassRoots to identify novel G/E technologies

• Bayer Animal Health/Piedmont Pharmaceuticals technology development

AgBio Evolving• Expanding from plant based genetic modification, mainly for

pest and pesticide resistance to include:

• Plants of higher nutritional value, and improved agronomical properties, e.g. drought resistance

• Biological/microbial based pest control and growth enhancers • Enhanced animal and plant breeding through MAS • Aquaculture enhancements and diagnostics • Plant disease and animal diagnostics • Bio-based industrial enzyme and material productions • Animal based therapeutic protein expression, ATryn (recombinant anti-

thrombin) produced by GTC approved in 2006 (EU), 10 others in clinical evaluation

Crop Protection• Biologicals are the next frontiers in crop protection and seed

growth sectors.

• Monsanto and more recently Syngenta through its collaboration with Devgen is developing RNAi based approaches to control pests through knockdown of key proteins

• World market worth US $2.3billion and growing by an estimated 10-15% annually

• Several acquisitions recently: Bayer acquiring AgraQuest and Prophyta GmbH; BASF acquired Becker Underwood; Novozyme acquiring Natural Industries Inc. for its Streptomyces based products.

• Symbiota and New Leaf Symbiotics received substantial fundings

Aquaculture opportunities

• Rapid growth with more then 3X production in the past ten years regionally

• Annual losses due to disease in 16 Asian countries: US $3b

• Opportunities in: • Disease screening for multiple

pathogens

• Improve breeds and feeds

Malaysian BiodiversityEstimated Species

Mammals 306

Birds 742

Reptiles 567

Marine Fishes 1,619

Freshwater Fish 449

Invertebrates 150,000

Vascular Plants 15,000

Fungi 4,000

Mosses 522

Hard coral 612

Harnessing Malaysia’s Biodiversity

• Encourage multidisciplinary approaches to studying biodiversity with emphasis on genomics, metagenomics and microbiome understanding to spur new commercial growth

• Tremendous need in:

• Emerging bioenergy industry

• Bioremediation and biodegradation of plastics and synthetic rubber

• Biofertilizers

• Improved crops and animal breeds for the local climate

• Natural dyes, food coloring, preservatives