MBI’s Grandevo® bioinsecticide receives completeness determination from the Netherlands

Date:09-15-2015

The US biopesticide company Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (MBI) recently announced that its GRANDEVO bioinsecticide has received a completeness determination from the European Commission and is now cleared to begin the evaluation for Annex 1 listing and commercialization in the European Union. A June 25th policy decision by the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority and a Working Group of EU Member States, has allowed GRANDEVO, an innovative biopesticide containing only non-viable Chromobacterium subtsugae cells, to be evaluated as a microbial pesticide.  Until this recent EU decision, only pesticides containing live microbes could be evaluated under EU regulation.  GRANDEVO is the first ever bioinsecticide formulated as a non-viable microbial “end product” to be accepted for review as a microbial pesticide by EU regulators and to receive a favorable completeness check decision.

Grandevo is being assessed under the Netherlands Government’s “Green Deal” Initiative, which has been created with an aim to “speed up the sustainability of PPPs (plant protection products) in agriculture and horticulture by facilitating the authorization of green PPPs with a low risk for humans, animals and the environment”, according to ctgb (Board for the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products and Biocides).

GRANDEVO is an advanced broad-spectrum bioinsecticide that offers protection against chewing and sucking insects and mites including thrips, whiteflies, Asian citrus psyllid, armyworms and other pest caterpillars, mites, Lygus bug, mealybugs, and soil-inhabiting pests. The active ingredient in GRANDEVO bioinsecticide is a microbe with insecticidal properties produced during the fermentation manufacturing process. GRANDEVO has multiple modes of action that makes the product an excellent addition to insect resistance management programs. This reduced risk of resistance is a benefit in solving an increasing problem that hampers growers’ ability to control crop-damaging pests. GRANDEVO—used alone or with synthetic insecticides, in rotation or in a tank mix—can help growers manage pests better and extend the useful life of other products.

MBI believes that efficacy trials recently completed in Europe will be used to support the potential uses of Grandevo for the control of whitefly and thrips in Solanaceae (tomato, pepper and aubergine) and Cucurbitaceae (melon, cucumber and squash) crops.

Keith Pitts, MBI’s VP of Regulatory and Government Affairs said, “receiving this completeness determination for Grandevo from the Netherlands is an important step in making the potential benefits of new biopesticide products available to growers throughout the EU.  The Netherlands’ Board for the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb), the European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG-SANTE) and the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association were instrumental in supporting Marrone Bio Innovations to achieve this completeness determination. MBI looks forward to working with Ctgb and other EU regulatory agencies on the next steps in the evaluation and potential registration process of GRANDEVO in Europe.”