Durham, N.C., Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pairwise, a health-focused company pioneering genetics-based innovation in food and agriculture, shares its long-term focus on delivering solutions to major challenges in food and agriculture, including improving the convenience of nutrient-dense foods and developing new crop varieties so that producers “can do more with less” in the face of a changing climate.
Major innovations in the produce industry have successfully met the increasing consumer need for year-round supply, such as blueberries, and convenience, such as baby carrots and easy-peel mandarins. Pairwise is working to accelerate more of these game-changing product innovations for consumers, including seedless blackberries and pitless cherries, using CRISPR technology.
In 2023, the company introduced the first CRISPR food to the North American market through the food service channel and a retail test market in NYC. The products, leafy green blends, include highly nutritious mustard greens that Pairwise edited with CRISPR to improve the flavor, dialing down the wasabi-like pungency of the leaves.
Now that Pairwise has successfully demonstrated its ability to deliver on this technology, as well as earning initial acceptance from consumers and chefs, the company is focusing its efforts on exciting advances in its R&D pipeline, such as seedless, thornless, and higher-yielding berries, as well as bringing new varieties of innovative crops to market through both R&D collaborations, like its partnership with Bayer in climate-friendly short corn, and licensing deals like its agreement with Tropic Biosciences in bananas and coffee.
“We introduced our greens to show that we can develop and commercialize a great-tasting product with CRISPR that people want to buy – that’s a big win,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “Now that we’ve achieved this important milestone and laid the commercial groundwork, we’re excited to shift our focus to the next projects in our pipeline, such as the innovations we’re working toward in berries and cherries that we believe will have a big impact on the category. This shift in focus also includes licensing the newly developed leafy green varieties to industry partners with the existing infrastructure to grow and distribute the seed and salad products.”
Focusing its expertise and resources on developing future products, Pairwise is accelerating its ability to make products that will deliver important solutions to problems in food and agriculture that need to be addressed in years, not decades.
“To identify and solve the problems in our food system, we must bridge the gap between technology, producers, and consumers, and bring game-changing innovation to the produce industry across the supply chain. The work Pairwise has done to demonstrate the precision of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture, and ensure consumer acceptance of these new innovations that will help address the pressing challenges of our food system, is invaluable,” said Vonnie Estes, Vice President of Innovation, International Fresh Produce Association.
In addition to the consumer products Pairwise is developing, the company has recently advanced important agriculture partnerships, such as its second collaboration with Bayer following the delivery of 27 novel traits from Pairwise to Bayer’s pipeline.
“With differentiated expertise, a robust product pipeline, and proven ability to deliver, Pairwise has the potential to contribute significant improvements in global food and agriculture,” said Cam Wheeler, Partner at Deerfield Management and Pairwise Chairman of the Board.
About Pairwise:
Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ platform here.
Pairwise Media Contact:
Diana Souder
communications@pairwise.com
