Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN) reported a wider first-quarter 2026 net loss as revenue declined sharply from the prior-year period, while management emphasized progress in reshaping the company around its ChemPass AI platform for small-molecule discovery in pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals.
On the company’s earnings call, President and CEO Ofer Haviv said Evogene is focused on “designing novel, highly potent small molecules optimized across multiple parameters for drug development and ag chemicals” using ChemPass AI, its computational generative AI engine. Haviv said the company has made two strategic decisions: concentrating technology efforts on ChemPass AI and streamlining business activities toward pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Revenue Falls as Casterra Sales Decline
VP Finance Polina Ravzin said first-quarter revenue totaled approximately $0.3 million, down from approximately $2.3 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was mainly due to lower revenue recognized by Casterra, which recorded approximately $2 million in seed sales in the first quarter of 2025.
Cost of revenue fell to approximately $0.1 million from approximately $1.5 million a year earlier, consistent with the revenue decline. Research and development expenses, net of non-refundable grants, decreased to approximately $1.8 million from approximately $2.5 million, primarily reflecting lower R&D expenses at Biomica, Casterra and AgPlenus.
Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $0.4 million, with no material change from the prior-year period. General and administrative expenses remained stable at approximately $1.2 million, as lower G&A costs were offset by exchange-rate effects between the U.S. dollar and the Israeli shekel and transaction costs related to a warrant issuance.
Evogene posted an operating loss of approximately $3.2 million, compared with approximately $3 million in the first quarter of 2025. Net loss widened to approximately $5.9 million from approximately $3 million a year earlier. Ravzin said the increase was mainly due to lower revenue and higher net financing expenses, partly offset by reduced operating expenses and a smaller loss from discontinued operations.
Financing expenses, net, were approximately $2.7 million, compared with financing income, net, of approximately $1.1 million in the year-earlier quarter. The change was primarily attributed to accounting treatment of pre-funded warrants and warrants issued in Evogene’s August 2024 fundraising and February 2026 warrant transaction.
As of March 31, 2026, Evogene held consolidated cash, cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits of approximately $13.1 million. Consolidated cash usage during the first quarter was approximately $2.8 million.
ChemPass AI Remains Central to Strategy
Haviv highlighted Evogene’s technology collaborations, including work with Google. He said a partnership announced in 2025 helped develop a generative engine capable of designing new molecular structures that are highly novel, easier to synthesize and better aligned with multiple product-development requirements.
In February 2026, Evogene announced a second collaboration with Google focused on integrating AI agents into ChemPass AI. Haviv said the effort is intended to enable capabilities that do not currently exist in global small-molecule discovery, including automatically extracting insights from scientific publications and creating proprietary datasets to support more accurate computational models.
“These new capabilities are expected to significantly strengthen Evogene’s technological leadership and competitive advantage,” Haviv said.
Pharma Division Adds Three Collaborations
Evogene’s pharmaceutical activity, which began at the start of 2025, expanded during the first quarter with three new collaboration agreements, according to Dr. Gabi Tarcic, Evogene’s chief business officer.
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In February, Evogene announced a collaboration with Systasy Bioscience and Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital in Germany focused on a biological target involved in neutrophil-driven hyperinflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. The collaboration is supported by a Eureka grant.
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In January, Evogene announced a collaboration with Unravel Biosciences targeting demyelinating disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Tarcic said the program aims to develop brain-penetrant therapies capable of restoring myelin and improving neurological function.
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In mid-February, Evogene announced a collaboration with Dr. Mark Adams and Queensland University of Technology in Australia focused on chemotherapy resistance. The program targets a cellular detoxification pathway that enables tumors to resist cancer therapy, including in non-small cell lung cancer.
Tarcic said Evogene is presenting its small-molecule pharma pipeline for the first time and expects additional projects to join the portfolio. “We are encouraged by the advancement of the molecules generated in collaboration with our partners,” Tarcic said.
AgPlenus Ends Bayer Collaboration, Advances Septoria Program
Evogene’s agricultural chemical development work is conducted through its AgPlenus subsidiary. Dr. Dan Gelvan, CEO of AgPlenus, said the company and Bayer have agreed to terminate their research collaboration after identifying that candidate molecules could not be further developed due to biological issues related to the target protein.
Gelvan said the collaboration had produced “significant novel active compounds” and validated AgPlenus’ ability to optimize active molecules. He added that the companies are exploring potential future collaboration opportunities based on AgPlenus’ computational chemistry capabilities and discovery platform.
AgPlenus is also advancing an internal program to develop a fungicide for Septoria tritici blotch, a wheat disease caused by Zymoseptoria tritici. Gelvan said the disease represents an annual market value of more than $1.2 billion, with roughly 70% of fungicides applied to wheat in Europe aimed at combating it.
Gelvan described progress in the program using ChemPass AI. After an initial screen of 440 candidates yielded 11 enzymatic inhibitors and two compounds with antifungal activity, a subsequent screen selected 164 off-the-shelf molecules, of which 38 showed enzymatic inhibition and five demonstrated antifungal activity. AgPlenus then generated 27 novel compounds using LeadOptGPT; 25 met enzymatic inhibition thresholds, and 15 showed the desired biological activity.
“This progression illustrates how the integration of iterative experimental validation with AI-driven molecular design can transform limited early signals into a focused, high-quality lead set,” Gelvan said.
Non-Core Subsidiaries Being Wound Down or Evaluated
Ravzin said Evogene is continuing to address subsidiaries that are no longer part of its core business focus: Lavie Bio, Biomica and Casterra.
Lavie Bio’s agro-biological operations were acquired by ICL in 2025 and discontinued at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Ravzin said Evogene is distributing the remaining cash balance from the sale and expects to receive two additional payments under the transaction.
Biomica, which focuses on human microbiome-based therapeutics, licensed its lead oncology candidate, BMC-128, to Lishan Pharmaceuticals in early 2026 and is completing a Phase 1 clinical trial for the candidate. Biomica also received approval to distribute remaining cash to shareholders.
Casterra’s activity has been reduced to focus on Brazil. Ravzin said the company reported strong agronomic performance for its varieties in commercial-scale trials in Brazil in April and is conducting approximately 13 field trials across seven target regions. She said the work is expected to support the start of Casterra seed sales for the 2027 growing season.
During the question-and-answer session, Haviv said potential strategic transactions involving equity investment would depend on progress in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and technology. He suggested agricultural chemicals may be one of the first areas where such a transaction could emerge, while discussions with larger pharma companies are at an earlier stage.
“I think that we are in the right direction,” Haviv said, adding that success in one segment could support opportunities in the others.
About Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN)
Evogene Ltd. is a biotechnology company specializing in the use of computational and predictive biology technologies to design and develop novel products for agriculture and human health. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, the company has built a proprietary computational platform that integrates genomics, machine learning and data analytics to identify gene targets and biological traits. Evogene’s platform serves as the backbone for its research and development efforts, enabling the discovery of enhanced crop traits, microbial solutions and microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics.
In the agricultural sector, Evogene applies its platform to improve crop performance across a range of parameters, including yield enhancement, stress tolerance and resistance to pests and pathogens.
