RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Evoca – Belgium-based Biotalys’ new biofungicide – has done it again.
The food and crop protection company’s first protein-based product that uses biotechnology to control pests just received the World BioProtection Award for Best Biofungicide. Selection was based on innovation, scientific value and market potential.
The company opened its U.S. headquarters in RTP in 2020.
The recognition came from the World BioProtection Forum, a nonprofit organization that encourages collaboration between industry and academia in the agricultural technology sector.
It’s not Evoca’s first trip around the block. The product, which currently awaits registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), won Crop Protection Solution of the Year and Overall Food Quality Solution of the Year in the 2020 AgTech Breakthrough Awards program.
“This is a great encouragement for all stakeholders connected to our company as we prepare the market introduction of the product in select markets in the U.S. following regulatory approval expected later this year,” said Patrick McDonnell, chief business officer at Biotalys, of the latest award.
Evoca provides an environmentally friendly approach to combating major crop diseases like Botrytis and powdery mildew. It can offer U.S. fruit and vegetable growers a new way to protect their harvests to maximize yields and extend shelf life, while reducing dependence on chemical pesticides. The latest trials with the product show that it consistently outperforms a leading chemical fungicide when applied at the flowering stage in grapes, the company pointed out.
Evoca’s active ingredient received a new classification earlier this month – from the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee – that recognizes its novel mode of action that is different from other chemicals, microbials and plant extracts.
Biotalys hopes to launch the product in some regions of the United States in late 2022. The European Union will follow – approvals there are expected by the end of 2024. And major agricultural markets in Latin America and Asia will be considered for further registrations.
Biotalys said Evoca has now been included in more than 600 independent and company-driven field and greenhouse trials across multiple seasons, regions, climates, soil and production types, and crops.
Biotalys was founded in 2013 as a spinoff from the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology and is based in Ghent, Belgium. It opened its U.S. headquarters in 2020 in the Landing Pad at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park. That office serves as an important hub for Biotalys’ U.S. operations and was established in preparation to launch Evoca, according to the company.
(C) N.C. Biotech Center
