Nimbus-Monsanto collaboration achieves second milestone

Monsanto and Nimbus Therapeutics have achieved the second milestone of their research collaboration on helping farmers control diseases and promote plant health, which began in 2013.

The two companies are using each other’s strengths -- Nimbus’ innovative research tools and Monsanto’s agricultural testing capabilities -- to co-develop agricultural fungicides. The companies can identify agrochemicals to help farmers produce a better harvest by using computational technology and robust experimental screens in a rapid-cycle discovery process.

The announcement of the second milestone achievement means that Monsanto will make a payment to Nimbus as it continues to work on early season seed treatment benefits and strong foliar disease control in vegetables. The payment will help the collaboration to continue research on novel, broad-spectrum fungicides in crop field trials.

Fungal infestations are estimated to effect an average of 13 percent of crops despite the advances in fungal treatments.

Nimbus Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses a new computational technology-driven paradigm to rapidly advance a diverse pipeline of novel small molecule product candidates into clinical development. They focus on close collaborations, like the one with Monsanto, to develop computer-aid drug design, chemistry and pharmacology.