August 28, 2008

Bayer CropScience, a unit of German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, said Wednesday (August 27) it has been granted the first regulatory approval for its new corn herbicide thiencarbazone-methyl in Romania.

Thiencarbazone-methyl and the newly developed safener cyprosulfamide will be marketed in Romania in combination with the established active ingredient isoxaflutole as a ready-to-use-formulation under the brand name Adengo. The market launch is scheduled for 2009.

Further registrations for products based on thiencarbazone-methyl are expected in major EU corn growing countries, in the US and in Argentina in the course of 2009.

"We are confident of achieving a global peak sales potential of more than EUR100 million annually with this active ingredient", said Ruediger Scheitza of Bayer CropScience AG, responsible for Global Portfolio Management.

After tembotrione and pyrasulfotole, this is the third new herbicidal active ingredient from the company's successful research and development pipeline to reach market readiness since 2007.

Thiencarbazone-methyl controls monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous weeds in corn and displays a good balance between leaf action and soil action. The safener cyprosulfamide accelerates the decomposition of the herbicide in the corn plant, thus increasing its tolerability for the crop.