Yara International and Oerth Bio collaborate to tackle crop resilience

Durham, North Carolina, November 15, 2022 — Oerth Bio (pronounced “earth”), an agricultural biotechnology company pioneering targeted protein degraders in plants, and Yara International, a world leading crop nutrition company, today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration applying Oerth’s novel protein degrader technology to crop efficiency applications.

The collaboration will focus on boosting plant resilience to combat escalating climate stress impacting crop production and farm economics. The companies will co-develop novel products to improve nutrient use efficiency and strengthen plant resilience to climate change. By linking Yara’s agronomic expertise in crop physiology and crop nutrition to Oerth’s specialization in rational design of plant protein degraders, the collaboration will develop unique products to activate precision plant stress tolerance.

“This collaboration will be a game-changing win for farmers — a completely new product range to safeguard crop quality and yield, even as climate challenges increase and become more unpredictable.”

Lars Roesag, EVP Corporate Development & Deputy CEO, Yara International

Yara sees tremendous promise in the new technology, as indicated by Yara Senior Vice President of Agronomy and R&D, Markus Himken, “This collaboration will catapult Yara’s competitive footprint, offering farmers plant nutrition solutions specifically targeting plant resilience and improved crop quality — setting a new sustainable agriculture paradigm.”

The collaboration merges Yara’s mission for a nature-positive food future, and Oerth’s vision that protein degrader technology will transform agriculture. Oerth’s Attune™ platform harnesses a naturally occurring protein recycling system that precisely tunes climate-adaptable crops.

The companies are devoted to the idea that human health begins with plant health. They share a foundational commitment to sustainable and nutritious food system solutions, as Apostolos Klontzaris, Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Oerth Bio remarked, “This will be the first in a series of solutions that will enable crops to withstand climate change, enhance input efficiency, and improve food nutrient profiles. We are inspiring and motivating the necessary transition to high-quality food. Such mission-critical collaborations symbolize our longstanding commitment to humanity.

“We believe PROTAC® degrader technology is the sustainable answer to a safe, productive, resilient, and more nutritious food system. By partnering with agricultural leaders like Yara, we are poised to deliver tangible benefit to farmers, as they face fast emerging operational complexity and climate challenges."

John Dombrosky, CEO, Oerth Bio

About Yara

Yara grows knowledge to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet. Supporting our vision of a world without hunger and a planet respected, we pursue a strategy of sustainable value growth, promoting climate-friendly crop nutrition and zero-emission energy solutions. Yara’s ambition is focused on growing a nature positive food future that creates value for our customers, shareholders and society at large and delivers a more sustainable food value chain.

To achieve our ambition, we have taken the lead in developing digital farming tools for precision farming and work closely with partners throughout the food value chain to improve the efficiency and sustainability of food production. Through our focus on clean ammonia production, we aim to enable the hydrogen economy, driving a green transition of shipping, fertilizer production and other energy intensive industries.

Founded in 1905 to solve the emerging famine in Europe, Yara has established a unique position as the industry’s only global crop nutrition company. We operate an integrated business model with around 17,000 employees and operations in over 60 countries, with a proven track record of strong returns. In 2021, Yara reported revenues of USD 16.6 billion.

For more information about the company, please visit www.yara.com

About Oerth Bio

Oerth Bio’s protein degrader technology for agriculture, aims to combine powerful farm efficacy with next-generation environmental sustainability. The technology is designed to deliver unparalleled safety of food and farm, while achieving superior field performance for farmers.

The core technological innovations driving Oerth Bio’s progress are:

• PROTAC® Molecules

PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTAC) compounds are biologically enabled molecules designed to induce the modulation of specific proteins via the ubiquitin proteasome system. Each region of the PROTAC molecule plays a role in its specificity and potency.

• Attune™ Platform 

Attune™ is Oerth Bio’s proprietary R&D platform for developing PROTAC molecules for agriculture. Through a rational target-based design process, the platform creates and optimizes molecules for specific crop applications and outcomes.

PROTAC® is a registered trademark of Arvinas Operations, Inc., and is used under license.

www.oerthbio.com

Media contact

Sr. Director, Communications
Oerth Bio
E-mail: laura.schuchart@oerthbio.com

Attachments

• Yara and Oerth Bio R&D teams
• Oerth Bio Scientist

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