Indianapolis, Indiana
June 5, 2007
“Game changing” innovation being
brought to market by Dow
AgroSciences was the focus of a recent presentation to
investors on Wall Street made by Daniel R. Kittle, PhD, Dow
AgroSciences vice president of Research and Development, as part
of the Merrill Lynch Agricultural Chemicals Conference in New
York. Kittle reinforced the Dow AgroSciences’ strategy of
continuing to grow its agrochemicals business while developing
new biotechnology products and platforms as he presented
information on the company’s anticipated product launches and
pipeline candidates.
“We have a more robust pipeline today than ever before,
containing chemistry with enormous potential and a portfolio of
biological solutions that will transform and differentiate this
company,” Kittle said.
The highlight of the pipeline discussion was the announcement
that Dow AgroSciences is developing a new family of traits,
providing innovative herbicide tolerance technology that can
improve the performance of industry-leading weed control systems
in corn, soybeans and cotton. The convenient, cost-effective
solution will enhance and protect today’s herbicide tolerant
crop technology that the majority of growers have adopted.
The technology, anticipated to be available for key crops
beginning in 2011 in corn, followed by soybeans in 2013,
consists of new herbicide traits that provide tolerance to
existing broadleaf and grass herbicides. Additionally, it will
be compatible with all popular weed control systems, expanding
growers’ options for protecting their yields and managing
changing weed spectrums in crops while preserving the viability
of the current industry-leading technologies.
Other examples from the company’s robust and diverse pipeline
include Omega-9 canola and sunflower oils with zero saturated
fat, an insecticide to control sap-feeding insects, and new
herbicide chemistry.
Cutting-edge techniques, such as the ability to precisely target
and regulate gene function in plants through an agreement with
Sangamo BioSciences, are enabling the company to reach key
discovery milestones. Dow AgroSciences has been able to target
native genes in canola using engineered ZFN™ technology to
affect specific gene sites with exceptional precision. In
addition, a ZFN™, designed to specifically cleave a native corn
gene sequence, was used to target a pre-selected site and enable
site specific transgene integration. This represents the first
successful targeted integration of DNA into a pre-selected
native corn sequence.
“We continue to be very impressed with our partnership with
Sangamo and with the overall progress of our collaboration,”
said Kittle. “These scientific milestones mark key events in the
application of the ZFN™ technology toward trait generation and
trait stacking, and importantly were achieved across different
crop plants core to our healthy oils and crop protection
businesses. The ZFN™ technology platform has significant
potential for the development of precision traits.”
Several products were mentioned as coming soon to market. One
active ingredient expected to be launched in 2008 is spinetoram,
an insecticide derived from a naturally occurring microbe with
unique attributes that make it a long-desired alternative for
hard-to-control pests like codling moth. Pyroxsulam is another
active ingredient anticipated to launch in 2008. This
graminicide cereal herbicide has broad spectrum activity, and
will be a new foundational molecule to further widen the
company’s already strong cereal herbicide portfolio. Along with
new products, the company is also rapidly advancing
breakthroughs in formulations technology. Ten novel delivery
systems are being tested in the field today, with some
anticipated on the market in Europe as soon as 2009.
Dow AgroSciences LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is
a top-tier agricultural company providing innovative crop
protection, pest and vegetation management, seed, and
agricultural biotechnology solutions to serve the world's
growing population. Global sales for Dow AgroSciences, a wholly
owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, are $3.4 billion.
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