Bion Tech and Bayer CropScience USA enter 2nd year R&D cooperation agreement

Bion Tech Inc., Taiwan and Bayer CropScience LP, USA have signed the 2nd year R&D Cooperation Agreement, in continuation to the R&D Cooperation Agreement for the development of new biopesticides, signed last year.

One of the projects is further evaluating two strains of Streptomyces from the strain bank of Bion Tech Inc. with promising bio-insecticidal and bio-acaricidal activity.

Under another project, further strains from the strain bank of Bion Tech Inc. will be screened to identify new fungicides/insecticides.

“The strains in our strain bank have already been identified for certain bio-fungicidal or bio-bactericidal functional performance.  We believe that this collaboration with Bayer will be immensely useful to screen our strains for new functional performance features to identify further opportunities in new application areas. With advanced techniques and technology now available, new functional performance screening can be undertaken relatively quickly.  Not many people know that Taiwan is rich in beneficial microbes which are uniquely aggressive due to climatic variations in which they have evolved.  So possibilities are high that our new strains could be developed into excellent, innovativebiopesticide products in the near future”, said Bruce Chen, Founder and CEO of Bion Tech Inc.

“We are fully committed to bringing new biological products to our customers as part of our integrated solutions,” said Jon Margolis, Head of Biologics Research. “Bayer is excited about the potential opportunities that our collaboration with Bion Tech may provide to growers in Taiwan and around the world.”