Lavie Bio Announces Positive 2nd Year Field Results in Its Bio-stimulant Program for Wheat

REHOVOT, Israel, July 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lavie Bio (Lavie), a fully owned subsidiary of Evogene (NASDAQ: EVGN) aiming to improve food quality, sustainability and agriculture productivity through the introduction of microbiome based ag-biological products, today announced achieving yield improvement following second year field trials in its bio-stimulant program for wheat. The positive results were achieved across multiple locations, wheat varieties and conditions, indicating consistent yield improvement through the application of Lavie's spring wheat bio-stimulant product candidates - LAV211, LAV212 and LAV213. 

Wheat is one of the world's most important crops accounting for a significant portion in the world's diet. The global wheat flour market was valued at $200 billion in 2015 and is estimated to reach $270 billion by 2022 ^[1]. Approximately 25 million acres of spring wheat is planted in North America, mostly concentrated in North Dakota and Western Canada^[2] .

The field trials of LAV211, LAV212 and LAV213 product candidates demonstrate consistent improvement of wheat yield per acre, across multiple locations, varieties and conditions spanning over two consecutive years with a 'win rate' in over 80% of the locations, with up to 20% yield benefit in top performing locations and an average improvement of 6-7% (p-value <0.05). These results indicate that Lavie wheat bio-stimulant products could potentially gain the farmer an additional $20-$50 profit per acre.

In parallel, Lavie has also focused on formulation technology and fermentation protocols that have significantly improved product shelf life as well as the establishment of the treatment in the crop's roots. Formulation and fermentation are known to be a critical challenge in the product development phase in order to reach commercialization. LAV211, LAV212 and LAV213 are being developed as a seed treatment with additional application methodologies to follow.

Additional activities in 2019 are expected to include broader validation trials in target growth locations, mainly in the US, to be followed by additional field trials in Canada next year. As previously disclosed, the company is targeting commercial introduction of a first product for wheat bio-stimulants in 3 years. 

Ido Dor, CEO Lavie Bio stated: "Lavie's bio-stimulant product family for spring wheat aims to supply consumers with healthier wheat while providing farmers more sustainable and productive agriculture practices. I am pleased with our second-year field results, another indication to the strength of Lavie's product development capabilities, that bringing us a step closer to product commercialization." 

About Lavie Ltd.

Lavie, a fully owned subsidiary of Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN), aims to improve food quality, sustainability and agriculture productivity through the introduction of microbiome based ag-biological products. Lavie utilizes a proprietary computational predictive platform, harnessing the power of big data and advanced informatics, for the discovery, optimization and development of bio-stimulants and bio-pesticides products. Lavie has an ongoing collaboration with industry leader Corteva for the development of seed applied corn bio-stimulants.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could", "expects", "intends", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "scheduled", "estimates" or words of similar meaning. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Lavie and Evogene may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which beyond the control of Lavie or Evogene, including, without limitation, those risk factors contained in Evogene's reports filed with the appropriate securities authority. Lavie and Evogene disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.  

References: 

[1] https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/flour-market

[2] https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/86210/whs-17l.pdf?v=43083, pg. 18; Phillips McDougall, 2017, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3210035901 

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SOURCE Lavie Bio (Lavie)