Bayer AG and Arvinas Inc. are jointly launching a new company named Oerth Bio.
The company, which will receive more than $55 million in committed funding from German healthcare conglomerate Bayer, will utilize Arvinas' PROTAC technology to develop new agricultural products to improve crop fields. The pharmaceutical companies had announced a separate collaboration in June that would focus on developing therapies for cancer as well as cardiovascular and gynecological diseases.
Oerth Bio will be headed by John Dombrosky as its CEO. Dombrosky is AgTech Accelerator's former CEO and has held multiple executive roles at Syngenta, Thomson Reuters and Northwest Airlines, Arvinas said in a press release.
The Protac platform — a technology that uses the body's own natural protein disposal system to selectively degrade and remove disease-causing proteins — can be developed to control weeds, insects, disease and address resistance mechanisms plants develop against existing agricultural solutions, Arvinas said.
Bayer and Arvinas will equally share governance and equity ownership of Oerth Bio.
