A federal appeals court refused to delay a ban on the sale of a pesticide that some environmental groups claim is killing honeybees. In effect, the court order prevents Bayer Cropscience from selling its Spirotetramat insecticide formulations (Movento and Ultor) while the company appeals a lower court ruling that halted sales.

“Bayer has demonstrated neither that it will suffer irreparable injury absent a stay, nor that it has a substantial possibility of success on the merits of its appeal,” U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood and U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph McLaughlin said in the ruling. The ruling could force a recall of already marketed Spirotetramat active ingredient products.

Movento, a translocated product, targets many sucking pests in grapes, citrus, vegetables, tree fruits, tree nuts, Christmas trees and hops. Ultor, a similar product, has been labeled for pomes and Christmas trees.

… The company laments the fact that the chemical was banned because of procedural faults, but did not indicate how it would proceed.

The new insecticidal active ingredient spirotetramat from Bayer CropScience has been granted regulatory approval in the strategically important markets in the United States and Canada. Spirotetramat will be marketed worldwide under the brand name Movento®. “Bayer CropScience is the international Number 1 in insecticides,” commented Dr. Rüdiger Scheitza, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG and Head of Global Portfolio Management. “We are confident of being able to expand our global leadership position in this market segment with Movento®. In the medium term we expect spirotetramat to have an annual sales potential of around EUR 200 million,” is how Dr. Scheitza described the economic importance of the new active ingredient for the company. The Launch of the new insecticide in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Africa, the Netherlands and Austria is planned for 2008 and 2009. It is the intention to market Movento® in over 70 countries.

The active ingredient in Movento® has a unique feature. According to Emmanuel Salmon, Insecticides Product Manager at Bayer CropScience, “Spirotetramat is the only modern insecticide with systemic two-way efficacy.” The substance moves up and down through the entire plant system; this two-way transport also delivers the substance to the leaves and bark, enabling Movento® to control insects in the inner leaves of lettuce and cabbage, for example, and in the bark of fruit trees. This exceptional systemic performance protects new shoots, leaves and roots, preventing insect eggs and larvae from growing. A further important advantage for farmers is the product’s long-lasting action: spirotetramat protects crops against insect attack for up to eight weeks.

Spirotetramat belongs to the chemical class of ketoenols invented by Bayer, and offers extremely effective control of a broad spectrum of sucking insects such as aphids, thrips, psyllids, mealy bugs, whiteflies and scales. Spirotetramat can be used in a large number of major crops: cotton, soya, citrus fruit, tropical fruit, pome and stone fruit, nuts, grapes, hops, potatoes and vegetables.

While Movento® exhibits a comprehensive spectrum of activity against sucking pests, it has proven selective for important beneficial insects such as ladybugs, hover flies and parasitoid wasps. “We recommend farmers to use our new insecticide as part of integrated crop protection programs and as a component of successful resistance management programs,” Emmanuel Salmon commented.

Bayer CropScience has carefully taken measures to establish national maximum residue levels (MRLs) and globally valid import tolerances to comply with international food standards (Codex Alimentarius) for the major export products at an early stage. These standards are achieved in part through international collaboration between regulatory authorities in Europe and North America, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.8 billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 17,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

Contact:
Dr. Hermann-Josef Baaken, Tel.: +49 2173 38-5598
E-mail: hermann-josef.baaken@bayercropscience.com
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