Keygene: Seeding European agbio

Agricultural biotechnology has been shunned by U.S. investors as taking too long to mature with too little return, but in Europe, the success of companies such as Plant Genetic Systems in Belgium - which was acquired in 1996 by AgrEvo GmbH for $730 million - has made the field far more attractive. Keygene n.v. has enough faith in the field that it sold off human applications of its technology earlier this year.

Keygene was formed in 1989 by a group of Dutch plant breeding companies as a defensive action. "The seed industry is very important in the Netherlands, and the Keygene founders worried that the industry might be threatened by genes and technology patented in the U.S.," said CEO Mark Vaeck. "Each seed company individually was too small to start a biotech company, so they did it jointly."...