Press Release

CINCINNATI, Ohio, November 17, 2016 — Agragen, LLC, a Cincinnati-based plant sciences company, announces the licensing of their patent for the transformation of Camelina sativa to Rothamsted Research of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, Great Britain, which enables Rothamsted to continue to produce long chain omega-3 fatty acids in camelina.

Rothamsted is developing a camelina that will produce the same bioactive omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil using this licensed technology from Agragen.

“We had been in negotiations for some time regarding the use of our patent with Rothamsted to permit them to transform camelina, which is an essential step to make these omega-3 fatty acids. This license gives them the freedom to operate to transform camelina,” said Sam Huttenbauer, Jr., chief development officer of Agragen. “Licensing this technology by Rothamsted will not alter our own efforts to make these omega-3 fatty acids in camelina, a long held goal of Agragen.”

“Agragen believes that collaborations that advance science will move the use of camelina forward, enabling the further establishment of this crop,” said Eric J. Murphy, chief science officer, Agragen. “It’s gratifying to know our technology will be used to further Rothamsted’s efforts to find a renewable source for these fatty acids that are critical for human health.”

Agragen recently licensed technology from The University of Hong Kong for their own efforts to make a high yield camelina that produces fatty acids found in fish oil.

“Agragen believes that combining this technology with our own omega-3 program will produce a camelina with twice the yield of traditional camelina”, said Murphy. “Using our elite lines of camelina with this technology will give us a significant competitive advantage in production of omega-3 camelina that will require fewer acres.”

“There is a substantial need to produce a sustainable source of marine derived omega-3 fatty acids and with the size of the market, licensing our patent for the transformation of camelina to Rothamsted Research just makes sense,” said Murphy. “In the end, this will only propel own efforts forward in this space.”

Agragen, LLC is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based plant sciences company focused on using Camelina sativa as a platform to produce fatty acids for use in human health and disease as well as a sustainable feedstock for bio-derived jet fuel.