- The last patent governing the first blockbuster agbiotech product—the original glyphosate herbicide tolerance marketed under the trade name Roundup Ready (RR1) in soybeans, developed by the Monsanto Company—expired in the United States on April 28, 2015 (ref. 1). Monsanto may no longer bring infringement claims for this technology against others to prevent them from growing, selling, exporting or importing soybeans with the RR1 event in the United States. Additionally, growers will gain the ability to save RR1 soybean seeds for planting in the next season. Patents covering other crops with the RR1 trait, such as canola, likewise expire in the near future, at which point the RR1 event will also become generic for these crops2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Yet, Monsanto has already introduced a second version of its herbicide resistant technology, called Roundup Ready 2 Yield (RR2Y), calculating that many farmers will upgrade. Indeed, 50 million acres of the RR2Y trait have already been planted since its launch in 2009 (ref. 1). However, as the agbiotech sector matures and foundational patents reach the end of their terms, a new competitive landscape of generic genetically engineered agricultural products, or agbiogenerics, could emerge.
Seed companies and public sector breeding programs, together with regulators both in the United States and abroad, are poised to learn from the case of the RR1 event, which elucidates key challenges that generic biotech products will face. How industry and regulators respond will profoundly shape how agbiogenerics will be deployed in agriculture worldwide.