Agreement signed for licensing agreement with Okayama Barley Genome Technology Co. Ltd. for the technology of oxidized glutathione for agriculture

Kaneka Corporation (Osaka, Japan; President: Mamoru Kadokura) and Okayama Barley Genome Technology Co. Ltd. (OBGT, Yokohama and Saitama, Japan; Chile Executive Officer: Satoru Inoue; Kiyoshi Kasamatsu) have signed an inclusive licensing agreement to exploit the invention of oxidized glutathione (GSSG) in the field of agriculture. OBGT has the right to sublicense the relevant patent invention owned by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Okayama Prefecture.

GSSG, after applied to plants, accelerates the Calvin cycle, the major path of photosynthesis, and effectively assimilates carbon dioxide in the air. GSSG is thus expected to increase the yield of produce and enhance its sugar concentration. This finding was obtained during CREST program*1 by Dr. Ken’ichi Ogawa of Okayama Prefectural Technology Center for Agriculture*2, Forestry, and Fisheries, Research Institute for Biological Sciences (RIBS). The noted GSSG agriculture technology has been many times appraised as “the Major Driver for the Second Green Innovation*3”. We have been conducting collaborations with RIBS from 2010.

GSSG exists in all the living organisms, not to mention plants, being generally regarded as safe enough material. We have an advanced production technology of GSSG through the long time experiences in life sciences.

We have already registered 5 GSSG fertilizer in Japan. We are now globally conducting field studies of GSSG fertilizer, including Canada, the United States, China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, consistently demonstrating significantly crop yield increase of 10-40% in most of the crops, typically potatoes, cassavas, sweat potatoes, onions, and eggplants. The GSSG agriculture will able to provide a solution to the world-wide demand for food situation

In our “Declaration of Kaneka United”, which we established in 2009, we have positioned food production support as one of our core areas. We will continue to actively expand research and product development that contributes to food and agriculture in the world. The introduction of GSSG as one small step, we will accelerate the global business development with this licensing and achieve sales of ¥10 billion by 2020, aiming at the large business platform of GSSG fertilizer, the product name is “Kaneka Peptide”.

1. “Creation of Innovative Technologies to Control Carbon Dioxide Emissions”, a CREST funding program adopted in 2009.
2. Dr. Ogawa received “the Commendation for Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries for young researchers” in 2008 based on GSSG research.
3. The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, and development, and technology transfer, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s, which increased agricultural production worldwide, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s through the introduction of high-yielding varieties, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticide.

 

(The corporate profile of Okayama Barley Genome Technology, Co. Ltd. (OBGT))

Chairman of the Board: Akinoti Suzuki
Chief Executive Officer: Satoru Inoue
OBGT is a startup company established in April 1, 2005. The company was founded based on the research conducted by an independent administrative institution, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) / Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST).