Feature: Argentine firm merges science, business to boost agri-biotech

In biotechnology, it is not easy for scientific research and business, two different worlds, to join forces. But Argentine firm Bioceres is an exception.

The company, which has more than 300 shareholders, among them some of South America's largest agricultural producers, says the key to its success lies in the interaction with researchers from top universities or the country's leading scientific agency, the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet).

The collaboration is a win-win situation for all involved, Geronimo Watson, director of Products and Technologies at Bioceres, told Xinhua Tuesday in his office in Rosario, a city located 300 km north of the capital of Buenos Aires, in Santa Fe province.

The company "has signed strategic agreements" under which Conicet or universities carry out research or send researchers to work at the company, Watson said.

"Bioceres doubles their salaries; a scientist doesn't lose his or her position at Conicet and can choose to go back whenever he or she wants," Watson added.

Should a researcher come up with an idea that is eventually developed into a product, "there's an agreement that establishes how the profits are distributed," Watson said.

The company uses various technologies to develop and commercialize products designed to boost crop output or add value to agricultural raw materials.

For instance, Bioceres has cooperated with a team of Conicet researchers led by Dr. Raquel Chan and associated with Argentina's National Littoral University to create HAHB-4, a patented sunflower gene that helps boost seeds' yield and tolerance to drought.

In the process, when the research team isolated and identified the sunflower gene, they approached Bioceres to help with the process of obtaining a patent and commercialization.

"If an idea is worth pursuing and can obtain patents, we look for a partner that can put up the funding to see the idea through to production, which can be very costly," Watson said.

"If we can collaborate with companies from, say, China, the cost could be lower," he added.

Cooperation between China and Argentina in the field dates back to 2013, when Bioceres agreed to partner with Dabeinong Technology Group to develop more resistant soybean and corn by combining biotechnologies designed by Coninet researchers to withstand drought and salinity with Chinese-engineered resistance to insects and herbicides.

"It's generating a very important opportunity, because there is complementarity between Argentina and China. From a technological perspective, there are comparative advantages that, if tapped, can make the two companies generate breakthroughs much faster and cheaper by working together," Watson said. Endi