NEW YORK (AP) -- Monsanto Co. said Wednesday it agreed to sell its Posilac brand of cow hormones to drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. for at least $300 million.
Indianapolis-based Lilly may also make additional payments to Monsanto, an agricultural chemical company, contingent on the results of the deal. The sale will be completed "as soon as practical," Monsanto said in a statement.
The Posilac brand will become part of Lilly's Elanco animal health unit.
Posilac is recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, a hormone that increases milk production in cows. Monsanto described it as the leading dairy animal supplement in the U.S., with more than half a billion units sold since the product was approved in 1994.
Monsanto described Elanco as the seventh-largest animal health company in the world. It has been marketing rBST for Monsanto outside the U.S. for 10 years.
St. Louis-based Monsanto said earlier in August that it was looking to sell the Posilac business so it could focus on its seeds and traits business.
Shares of Monsanto rose $2.60, or 2.3 percent, to $115.46 while Eli Lilly fell 10 cents to $47.70 in trading after the opening bell.
