DuPont, Syngenta Set Venture To License Crop-Biotech Traits

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DuPont Co. and Syngenta AG, banding together against crop-biotechnology giant Monsanto Co., agreed to cross-license some of their biotechnology traits and to form a joint venture to license some of their genes and breeding lines to seed companies.

While crop-biotech companies make a lot of their money selling their genetically modified seeds directly to farmers, the largest company by sales of seeds and genetically modified traits -- Monsanto of St. Louis -- has also long reaped additional profits by licensing its genes to other seed companies. These genes ...