Cibus at Alliance Global Partners: Strategic Gene Editing Insights

On Wednesday, 21 May 2025, Cibus Inc. (NASDAQ:CBUS) presented at the Alliance Global Partners Healthcare Company Showcase, outlining its innovative approach to agricultural biotechnology. The company, specializing in gene-edited crop traits, highlighted its rapid trait development system (RTDS) and emphasized the potential for significant growth through a royalty-based model. While the company anticipates its first revenues in 2027, challenges remain, including securing regulatory approvals and expanding its customer base.

Key Takeaways

• Cibus utilizes gene editing, differentiating from GMOs by modifying existing DNA without foreign genes.
• The RTDS can deliver new crop traits within 12 months, significantly faster than traditional methods.
• Cibus expects its first royalty revenues in 2027, with a growth projection through 2029.
• The bio-fragrance business, based on oleaginous yeast, is expected to generate nominal revenues in 2025.
• Regulatory approvals and predictable results are crucial for future growth.

Gene Editing vs. GMOs

• Cibus differentiates itself by using gene editing, which modifies the plant’s existing DNA rather than introducing foreign genes.
• Regulatory determinations increasingly recognize gene-edited crops as indistinguishable from those occurring naturally, reducing trade barriers.
• CEO Peter Beetham likened the RTDS to a "red squiggly line" in Microsoft Word, allowing precise and rapid corrections to the plant’s genome.

Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS)

• The RTDS uses a "gene repair oligonucleotide" to make precise changes in the plant’s DNA at a single-cell level.
• This system enables Cibus to deliver new traits to customers within 12 months, compared to 10-30 years for conventional breeding and 10-15 years for GMO development.
• The speed and predictability of RTDS make Cibus an attractive partner for seed companies.

Business Model and Royalty Revenue

• Cibus focuses on productivity traits for major crops like canola, rice, and soy, targeting large acreage crops with high market potential.
• The company anticipates first royalty revenues in 2027, with a J-curve growth expected through 2029.
• Cibus estimates potential royalties of $10-$15 per acre for weed management traits.

Crop Traits and Development Status

• Developed traits include herbicide tolerance in rice and pod shatter reduction in canola, expected to be commercialized in 2027 and 2028.
• Advanced traits include additional herbicide tolerance and disease tolerance in canola and soy.

Bio-Fragrance Business

• Cibus has a bio-fragrance business based on an oleaginous yeast that produces valuable fragrances.
• The company is working with large CPG companies interested in using these bio-fragrances in their products.
• Nominal revenues are expected in 2025, with potential for tens of millions of dollars in royalties annually.

Future Outlook

• Near-term catalysts include announcements of additional customers, advancements in advanced traits, and expansion into wheat.
• Regulatory approvals and the ability to deliver predictable, time-bound results are key drivers for Cibus’s future growth.
• The company is focused on broadening its portfolio, expanding its customer base, and reporting on field trial results.

For more detailed insights, please refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - Alliance Global Partners Healthcare Company Showcase:

Matt, Analyst: And we’re here now to discuss another of our coverage companies, ticker c b u s on the NASDAQ, which we have rated at a buy with a 23.5 price target. CBIS is an agricultural biotechnology company advancing gene edited crop traits in economically important crops like canola, rice, and soy. These traits are created through their rapid treat development system. With us today from CBIZ is the founder and interim CEO of CBIZ, Peter Beetham. Thanks for joining us today, Peter.

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: My pleasure.

Matt, Analyst: So you guys are focusing on the development of gene edited traits. Can you explain to investors the difference between a gene edited trait and a GMO? And how have your recent regulatory determinations for your products confirmed that these are definitively not GMO?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Thanks, Matt, and thanks for the time today. I really appreciate it. The big difference between a GMO and what we do in gene editing is the fact that a GMO is a transgene. So there’s a lot of products out there, a lot of GMO products, and what they’ve done over the years is taken a gene from another organism and transferred it into a crop to create a new characteristic or what we call a trait in the industry. And that transgenic process has been deemed as GMO around the world.

We don’t do that. In gene editing, we’re able to go in and essentially make tiny changes using of the spelling changes, we call it, of the DNA using tools that are essentially using the DNA repair system of an organism. It happens naturally and what has happened over the last pretty much over the last decade is regulators around the world have understood that when you gene edit a crop or gene edit an organism, that it is indistinguishable from what occurs in nature. And we always turn the phrase, it’s a little bit like the red squiggly line under Microsoft Word, where you do a spelling where you’ve made a spelling error and you right click on that with your mouse and it corrects it to the spelling that you want. Essentially, what we do with our rapid trait development system at CBUS is that red squiggly line.

It’s a very cool way of being able to go into a genome and essentially edit the gene and then that forms a process using DNA repair that allows you to create a new characteristic or a new trait. So very different to the GMO process. I look at GMOs like the Windows 95 technology. It was great in 1995, but we’re in 2025 now. So regulatory determinations around the world have recognized that.

And so just recently, we got approval in Ecuador. We’ve also got approvals in many countries around the world, including North And South America. And EU, which is very exciting, in March, went through the process of getting the final votes for what they call the trialogue where the Commission, the Parliament and the Council in the EU get together to really formulate the full legislation document. So things are really moving very quickly. Thanks, Matt.

Matt, Analyst: Yeah, yeah. Great, Peter. So your rapid trait development system allows rapid development of gene added traits. So what technology do you use and how does your method allow for these extremely precise edits?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: So what I said before is the little red squiggly line underneath the right that gives you the precision. So we have a as part of the rapid trait development system, we use what we call a small snippet of DNA, we call the gene repair oligonucleotide, which is a mouthful. But what that allows us to do is, at a single cell level, put in reagents that go into the cell and only there for a short amount of time, but while they are there, they align with the genome and allow you to make spelling changes in genome with a lot of precision. That’s one of the things that really differentiates us from other gene editing companies. Our precision and ability to do multiple changes within genes, but also multiple genes within a genome, is very different and unique to CBIS.

Matt, Analyst: Great. And in the vein of the rapid trait development system, rapid is a keyword in this system. Can you explain how you’re leveraging the RTDS to create these traits rapidly in a manner where timelines are predictable? And how is this an improvement on existing methods in agronomic trait development, which is pretty consistently a long process?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Yeah, thanks, Matt. I think the I give it some context, because speed is everything when it comes to getting trades onto the market. What’s been happening with conventional plant breeding programs around the world has been a really long process. So selection within populations of genetics is what’s allowed us to bring forward some of the best crops and the best genetics for planting on literally hundreds of millions of acres. In some cases, that may take ten to thirty years.

So basically, you’re in the decade timeline. If you think about GMO, that’s the same. Some of the transgenic traits that have taken ten to fifteen years to get to market And in some cases, cost over $100,000,000 to actually get to market. So it was really slow, it was very expensive and it was really contained within a very small group of companies. Now with gene editing and with our rapid trait development system, we’ve been able to leverage the knowledge that we’ve built over a number of years at CBIUS to be time bound and predictable.

And when you think about time lines for a plant breeding program, getting that new trait or that new characteristic into a crop, we mentioned canola and rice and soy as our three major crops, getting it back to our customers and our partners within twelve months is a game changer. And as I’ve said before, with gene editing, when you’re able to do that and create a new characteristic, get it back in twelve months, it really provides an engine room for its plant genomics or plant genetics. And so a lot of seed companies are coming to us now because they understand that we can be time bound and predictable.

Matt, Analyst: Great. And currently, you guys are a pre revenue company and your future revenues from your crop traits that you are developing right now are planned to come from royalties. Can you explain how developing these gene edited traits and making these corrections to the red squiggly line in Microsoft Word can lead to a royalty business in agriculture?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Yes, I can. Thank you. Let me again frame this a little bit, because I think when you think about traits that we’re developing for companies, When if you think of seabish, you should think of productivity traits. So we are all about major crops and looking at improving yields and productivity of every acre available. As I said before, there’s hundreds of millions of acres out there.

Soy, for example, has over two fifty million acres just in North And South America. These are large acreage crops that need to be more productive. We want to make every acre more productive. So why I tell you that is because as a royalty business, we’re going to provide traits, these new characteristics to seed companies that they will take it to market. So it’s a very capital light business where we will share in the premium or the value that we bring to that marketplace with the trait.

And so a part of that premium is what we collect as a royalty, which we net to CBIUS. On our website, on our investor deck, there’s a whole list of how we look at that and the value there. But when you just to give you an idea, we’re looking at net to save us somewhere between $10 to $15 for some of our trades that are involved in weed management, for example. And then you get to 10,000,000 acres, it’s very easy to do the math that every year, you’re able to collect that royalty per acre from the seed companies providing that value. Now the value is generated by, as I said, improving productivity.

So in this case, it’s actually reducing the inputs with herbicides. And so you create value for the farmer. The farmer doesn’t have to use as much herbicide so application costs go down and that input is cheaper. And so if you share in that value with the farmer, the seed company and then the trait provider, which is CBIS, you can create quite a bit of value for all of us.

Matt, Analyst: Got it. Great. And just to clarify, when you are providing this value, you’re providing it to CBIS, one the farmer, two and the seed company, three.

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Correct.

Matt, Analyst: So can you just give a brief overview of each of the traits you have already developed and are currently developing and what the statuses are of each of those traits? And I’ll give you a little bit on that and then I have a follow-up.

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Okay. Thanks, Matt. I think that let me start with what we call developed traits both canola or what’s known as winter oilseed rape in Europe and rice. We have in rice, we have two herbicide tolerant traits, which is really a weed management solution. So being able to spray herbicide to kill all the weeds, but your rice survives.

So the rice is tolerant to that particular herbicide. So it’s a really efficient way to do weed management. There are two traits we’ve developed. We are looking actually at adding more traits into that portfolio. But currently, we have two that we can go individually or stack.

And so that’s the developed side of the traits with rice. On the canola front, we have what’s called pod shatter reduction. And so we’ve been able to put a trait into canola that at harvest the pods, which is like peas in a pod, can shatter. And so you can lose yield. So by having a tighter pod, it makes the harvest easier and more and so you don’t have that loss.

And so you preserve your yield. So they are the three really fully developed traits that we have put into partners genetics and we have done a number of field trials and they are coming on stream in 2027 and 2028. Additionally, we have traits that are advanced but not developed fully developed yet. And there are things like additional herbicide tolerance, which we call HD2, but we also have what I think is one of the more exciting trade categories, disease tolerance. We’re focused on sclerotinia, white mold, and we’ve got that coming now in canola and also winter oilseed rape.

And we are looking forward to also bring it forward in soy, both the herbicide tolerance and the sclerotinia tolerance in soy.

Matt, Analyst: Got it. And briefly, can you just explain to investors why farmers would want to pay more for each of these individual traits and what the value add there is for each of them?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Absolutely. I think that farming is a very lucrative business if you can manage your inputs, if you

Unidentified speaker: can

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: and also that leads to good yields. And so genetics are really the engine room for that. So when farmers go to buy their seed as part of their input, they then have to buy fertilizer, they buy crop protection products like herbicides, fungicides, insecticides. Farmers have a very good understanding of how much money they spend per acre to control weeds, for example. In the case of rice in the Mid South, they may spend as much as $120 per acre.

So if you can reduce that cost, they have really that improves their margins. And their margins are slim. And so if you can improve their or reduce their cost and use less chemistry, there’s also a time factor there of actually the application. And one of the reasons rice is so expensive is they actually fly on the herbicide. So they drop dusters come in and fly.

You can imagine how expensive that can be. So that’s where farmers look at that very economically and see that they can improve their profits. And so they’ll share they’ll definitely pay for that premium. They get the yield, they’ve reduced the input costs, they improve their margin.

Matt, Analyst: Got it. And the multimillion dollar question, when can we expect your crop traits to begin being planted on farmed acres and thus for royalties to start coming in to see this?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: One of the things that’s taken some time is getting it in the hands of our customers, getting the specifications right and the sales and marketing built. That takes a couple of years. We’ve handed material back, so it’s not like if it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when it’s going to happen. And the beauty of that is that right now, we’re working with a number of organizations, both in The U. S.

And Latin America, and so they’ll start to flow in 2027. So we’re very close. And then builds through ’27, ’20 ’20 ’8, ’20 ’20 ’9 is really where you see the J curve build on our royalties that come back to CBIZ.

Matt, Analyst: Got it. And what are some of the major near term catalysts for CBIZ that investors should be looking out for?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: So I think the near term catalysts are announcements of additional customers. As we add in new customers in our rice portfolio, advances in the field of what we call our advanced traits like sclerotinia, we continue to share in the marketplace that when we do our field trials, we’ve tested new modes of action. And that’s really that’s the exciting part on the sclerotinia is because building the different modes of action is important for long term application of that trait because diseases evolve and you want to be able to have multiple modes of action to make it durable. That really is a blockbuster trait. So you will see that coming forward.

Other milestones, we’re looking at expanding our portfolio. We have a wheat platform. We’re looking forward to work with some prospective collaborators on wheat, which is great. So the other things to look out for, we’ll be keeping everyone apprised of launch times in 2027. But before that, broadening our portfolio, broadening our customer base and reporting in our field trials.

Matt, Analyst: Got it. And very quickly, you guys also have a bio fragrance business. Can you describe a little bit of what that business is and what it’s built around and how those future revenues might look?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Thanks, Matt. It’s a part of our business that was built around in our discovery process, we used microorganisms to look at finding what to edit. And during that process, we discovered that one of our yeast organisms that we use produces a lot of oil. It’s called an oleaginous yeast, but it just produces a lot of oil. And with the right genetics and the right feedstocks, you can create some essentially in that oil, a bio fragrance, a very valuable fragrance for the market for large CPG companies.

They’ve got very interested in that. So even though it was a small effort on our behalf, these we’ve got some people out there that are really keen to use these fragrances in a lot of their products. So we’re building that as a fermentation product. And we’ve already done some scale up work, and we’ll see nominal revenues this year in 2025 and then building next year. It’s a fairly large opportunity.

It’s in the tens of millions of dollars royalty per year. Again, it’s a royalty, and it’s something that we would work with a larger company to be the pull through and demand and create the demand. It’s an exciting area, actually.

Matt, Analyst: Wonderful. And just in the last minute or so, is there anything that I missed or anything that you would like to cover just to say to investors in your last minute or so?

Peter Beetham, Founder and Interim CEO, CBIS: Matt, thank you. What I’d like to share is I think there’s two big drivers right now of our business and it really is our ability to be time bound and predictable and returning material within twelve months. And we did a big press release on January and that’s created a lot of interest with prospective partners and customers. And the second thing is the regulatory. We mentioned that at the top of the discussion.

Regulatory is that because you’re dealing with major crops, which have these major acreages as well, and they are totally over 500,000,000 acres. And that allows you to sort of think through, if there regulatory agencies are seeing us as indistinguishable from what occurs in nature or part of a breeding program, we become the same as conventional. So trade barriers are not there. Being able to cultivate in areas like Europe and Latin America and Asia and India open up these global markets. So they are the two big drivers that have really changed our world.

And so just in the last quarter, that’s opening up and becoming more essentially harmonized around the world, and that’s been a very exciting transition for us.

Unidentified speaker: All

Matt, Analyst: right, wonderful. Thank you, everyone, for your attention and thank you, Peter, for joining us today. This is CBUS, ticker c b u s, which we have rated at a buy with a $20.23 50 price target. Thank you,

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.