Company news

摘要

COMPANY NEWS BASF investing in plant biotechnology German group BASF is to invest EUR 700 M over 10 years in plant biotechnology research. It will create a holding company to run its businesses in this sector (seeds research and development). The group is also planning to buy or acquire shares in seeds producers. BASF wants to become a market leader in biotechnology. It will integrate its researchers working on plants into BASF Plant Science GmbH which will have 300 highly qualified employees. At start 1999 BASF acquired a 40 stake in Swedish seeds producer Svaloef Weibull and the 2 companies restructured their plant biotechnology operations as BASF Plant Science GmbH. As well as businesses in Germany (Metanomics and SunGene) BASF Plant Science has 3 research laboratories in Sweden 1 in Canada and a research centre in the US.The company is particularly interested in enhancing plantsrsquo; resistance to cold and heat so that they can be grown outside temperate zones. It also wants to increase oil protein and carbohydrate yield as well as vitamin content. Mergers Creation of Syngenta being investigated by EU Commission The European Commission is to carry out a thorough 4-month investigation of the proposed merger of the agrochemical activities of Zeneca and Novartis to form Syngenta. There are concerns that the venture will have an excess share of the market for fungicides for cereals sugar beet and maize. Sales of Syngenta are estimated at $7.9 bn/y with the new company being a market leader for both herbicides and fungicides.Additional information regarding the merger was requested by the US Federal Trade Commission in February 2000. The partners still anticipate completing the deal by the second half of 2000. European Commission clears merger of Monsanto and Pharmacia amp; Upjohn Monsanto Co and Pharmacia amp; Upjohn announced that the European Commission has cleared the planned merger of the two companies. Based on the European approval the companies closed the merger on 31 March 2000 and began trading as Pharmacia Corp on 3 April 2000. In Please send any contributions to the NEWS sections in Pesticide Outlook to Hamish Kidd The Royal Society of Chemistry Thomas Graham House Science Park Cambridge CB4 0WF.FAX +44 (0)1223 420247; email KIDDH@RSC.ORG. Pest ic ide Outlook ndash; June 2000 78 relation to the European Commission ruling the two companies have agreed to divest a few immediate-release analgesic products marketed by Pharmacia amp; Upjohn in Sweden. Pharmacia Corprsquo;s corporate and pharmaceutical business headquarters will be in Peapack NJ. The agricultural business headquarters will be in St Louis and will retain the Monsanto name (http://www.pnu.com). Paradigm Genetics and Bayer Paradigm Genetics Inc. achieved another milestone in connection with its collaboration agreement with Bayer AG in the search for novel screening targets that may lead to the development of new herbicides. Additional assays on target genes discovered in Paradigmrsquo;s GeneFunction Factory are in development.Two milestones were achieved in February 2000 when Paradigm delivered the first assay under the agreement and delivered release 1.1 of a customised FunctionFinder bioinformatics system. Bayer is providing its experience in the development of crop protection products for the agricultural market. Paradigm Genetics is industrialising the process of gene function determination for four major sectors of the global economy nutrition crop production industrial products and human health (http://www.paradigmgenetics.com) Bayer relocates headquarters of Consumer Care Division Bayer relocated its Consumer Care Division to Morristown NJ USA on 1 May 2000. This segment manufactures and markets over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals and household insecticides.Bayer considers North America the largest growth market in this segment. Around half of turnover by Bayerrsquo;s Consumer Care business are generated in the US Canada Mexico and Central America. Merger of Spiess and Urania Chemicals German companies CF Spiess amp; Sohn GmbH amp; Co in Kleinkarlbach and Urania Chemicals GmbH in Hamburg plan to merge into Spiess-Urania Chemicals GmbH that will be based in Hamburg. The new company is expected to become the fifth largest pesticides company in Germany with a turnover of DM 150 M in 2000. Both companies will contribute around DM 75 M to this figure. Total turnover of Spiess-Urania Chemicals is estimated at DM 190 M/y and will include other activities.Turnover is forecast to rise to above DM 200 M in coming years. Subject to approval by the cartel authorities the merger will be backdated to 1 October 1999. Spiess and Urania Chemicals have been active in the German pesticides market for more than 50 years and the companies operate the joint venture Spiess- U r a n i a P f l a n z e n s c h u t z G m b H i n Ochsenfurt. Snippets hellip;the Aventis joint venture with HangZhou General Pesticide to make fipronil in Hangzhou China has been approved by the Chinese government. hellip;Aventis CropScience has bought 25 of French vegetable oils producer Novance Oise. According to Aventis Novance gives it a platform in biotechnology research for industrial products derived from new oilproducing plants.hellip;Dow AgroSciences plans to close its European research facility at Letcombe in Oxfordshire UK with the loss of approxim a t e l y 5 0 j o b s . T h e c o m p a n y rsquo;s Formulation Science and technology group will be consolidated at the existing Kingrsquo;s Lynn site with non-laboratory functions being relocated to a nearby office Incinerator available commercially Horstine Farmery have introduced THE inCINerator BIN for on-farm disposal of plastic pesticide containers and their outer packaging in the UK. THE CIN BIN as it is to be known uses the design developed by the Silsoe Research Institute and the British Agrochemicals Association (BAA). It follows the circular construction of the pilot BAA unit and has a robust grid to withstand the very high temperatures achieved during the burn. For more information Email info@horstinefarmery. c o m . B A A h a s l a u n c h e d a campaign to encourage farmers to clean and burn pesticide packs using such incinerators; two flyers are being printed entitled ldquo;Dirty Packs Will Cost You Moneyrdquo; and ldquo;Only Incinerate Clean Packsrdquo;.