Novartis to Introduce New Herbicide-Tolerant Crop Technology
Bloomberg News
February 12, 1999, 1:31 p.m. ET
Novartis to Introduce New Herbicide-Tolerant Crop Technology
Minneapolis, Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Novartis AG, the
world's biggest crop chemicals company, said it has developed a
new weed control system that could dent the dominance of
Monsanto Co.'s herbicide-tolerant Roundup Ready technology.
The system developed by Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis
combines genetic engineering and a new class of chemistry to
produce seed that will enable farmers to spray a new Novartis
herbicide over their crop, killing weeds without damaging the
crop itself.
Novartis, which says its new product heralds ''the next
generation of herbicide-tolerant crop technology,'' still
requires approval to market it from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
The company plans to release details of the technology at a
press conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Feb. 19 during
the Commodity Classic, a commodities industry convention.
In the two years since it was introduced, St. Louis-based
Monsanto Co.'s Roundup Ready soybeans, corn and cotton, have
been widely adopted by farmers. Roundup Ready crops are
resistant to Monsanto's best-selling Roundup herbicide, which
comes off patent in the U.S. in 2000.
The only commercially available product that currently
competes -- and that only to a small extent -- with Roundup
Ready is the Liberty Link system offered by AgrEvo GmbH, a joint
agricultural venture of German chemical companies Hoechst AG and
Schering AG. Liberty Link crops are genetically engineered to
tolerate AgrEvo's Liberty herbicide.
--Toni Clarke in the Chicago newsroom (312) 692-3725 /mfr
|
