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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1093)	2/5/1999 9:11:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2539

Monsanto to Sell Biodegradable Plastic Polymers Technology Bloomberg News February 5, 1999, 6:53 p.m. ET Monsanto to Sell Biodegradable Plastic Polymers Technology St. Louis, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co., a leading agricultural biotechnology company, said it will sell its biodegradable plastics technology as part of belt-tightening effort following the collapse last year of its planned merger with American Home Products Corp. Monsanto had hoped to genetically engineer canola and mustard plants to produce biodegradable plastics. The company made some advances, but said a commercially viable product was five to seven years away. The St. Louis-based company said it tried to find a partner to help develop the business, but was unsuccessful. In December it closed it down. Most of the 50 employees were transferred in the preceding months. The five remaining were dismissed. ''We had hoped to use the plants as factories,'' said Diane Herndon, a Monsanto spokeswoman, ''but the market wasn't there for them. No one was willing to pay extra money for the biodegradable polymer.'' Monsanto was also developing plastics using a fermentation technology it acquired from Zeneca Plc in 1996. It charged $4.00 a pound for biodegradable polymers produced through fermentation. Petroleum-based polymers cost 40 cents a pound. The company had hoped to get the cost of its biotechnology-based polymers down to 60 to 80 cents. The company will sell or license its technology in pieces or as a package. Herndon said it is a very small business -- ''in the millions, not hundreds of millions.'' Monsanto has successfully developed a variety of genetically enhanced crops that resist insects and tolerate herbicides. It is working to develop food and animal feed with improved nutritional composition. It is stripping away all businesses that don't relate to its main agricultural, nutrition or drug businesses. --Toni Clarke in the Chicago newsroom (312) 692-3725 /mfr