Plant Health Care - New US PREtec Patents Issued

Reach

6 October 2020

PLANT HEALTH CARE plc

("Plant Health Care" or the "Company")

Four US patents issue for PREtec peptide products

Plant Health Care^® (AIM: PHC.L), a leading provider of novel patent-protected biological products to global agriculture markets, is pleased to announce the granting of four new US patents for its novel PREtec peptide technology.

 Highlights

        - Plant Health Care has filed more than 50 patent applications worldwide for its PREtec peptide technology since 2012

        - Four additional patents have now been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

        - The patents provide protection for a wide range of PREtec peptides for a variety of agricultural uses

        - Additional patents are expected to be granted prior to the end of the year

PREtec is a novel, environmentally friendly approach to growing crops more sustainably.  PREtec peptides can be thought of as 'vaccines for plants' - they stimulate the plants' natural defence systems and result in improved crop yield and quality. 

Three of the four patents share the same title, "Elicitor Peptides Having Disrupted Hypersensitive Response Box And Use Thereof," and issued January 7, 2020, as U.S. patent No. 10,524,472 and U.S. patent No. 10,524,473, and on August 18, 2020, as U.S. patent No. 10,743,538. The fourth patent, titled "Hypersensitive Response Elicitor-Derived Peptides And Use Thereof," issued on October 6, 2020, as U.S. patent No. 10,793,608.

These patents, in addition to US patent No. 10,470,461 which issued in 2019, claim a large number of unique plant response elicitor peptides that when applied activate a plant to defend itself, thereby 'vaccinating' plants against a variety of environmental stresses such as disease and drought, enhancing root and shoot growth, and promoting yield and crop quality at harvest.

For example, in almond trials conducted in California during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons, the application of a PREtec peptide resulted in increasing the almond yield by more than fifteen percent compared to the standard practices. At recent almond prices, this additional yield would have been worth more than $800/acre to the grower. Multiple foreign patents corresponding to these US PREtec patents are expected to issue during the next 12-24 months.

As previously announced, the Company is now poised to launch the first products from a broad pipeline of PREtec peptides, targeting markets which have a value of greater than $5 billion.  The Company has developed a global scientific lead in the use of plant response elicitor peptides for agriculture, with a number of patents now granted in the US.

Chris Richards, CEO of Plant Health Care, said, "Receiving these new patents is another step towards securing Plant Health Care's position as the leading innovator of peptides for agriculture.  The Company has developed a global scientific lead in the use of plant response elicitor peptides for agriculture, with a number of patents now granted in the US. These patents cover an immense number of future product candidates which we are continuing to develop to solve a variety of urgent problems faced by farmers. We are preparing to launch this novel technology directly to markets in USA, Brazil and other countries, once regulatory permits are in place. The Company expects to begin the commercialization of products based on PREtec intellectual property in 2022."  

For further information, please contact:

Plant Health Care plc

Chris Richards, CEO, Tel: +1 919 926 1600

Arden Partners plc - Nomad & Broker

John Llewellyn-Lloyd / Dan Gee-Summons Tel: +44 (0) 20 7614 5900

Company website: www.planthealthcare.com

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