In 1996 Monsanto (who sold PHB as a copolymer with PHV under the trade name Biopol) bought all patents for making the polymer from ICI/Zeneca. However, Monsanto's rights to Biopol were sold to the American company Metabolix in 2001 and Monsanto's fermenters producing PHB from bacteria were closed down at the start of 2004. Monsanto began to focus on producing PHB from plants instead of bacteria. But now with so much media attention on GM crops, there has been little news of Monsanto's plans for PHB.