BIOTECH NEWS
EPA move to streamline GE approvals The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new rule to make it easier for developers to market crops that are genetically engineered (GE) to produce pesticides, Chemical & Engineering News reported on 8 September. “This new rule will provide critical new tools for America’s farmers as they work to increase agricultural productivity, improve the nutritional value and quality of crops, and fight pests and diseases,” EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said. The new rule would apply to specific plant-produced natural products that acted as pesticides and the genetic material that
WORLD: American biochemist Jennifer A Doudna and French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier have been jointly awarded the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry for developing the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors used in gene editing, CNN Health reported on 7 October. The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool had revolutionised molecular life sciences, a Nobel committee press release said. It had contributed to many important discoveries and plant researchers had been able to develop crops that withstood mould, pests and drought. CRISPR – short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats – equips bacteria with the ability to recognise genetic sequences that viruses insert into their DNA, and disable them by snipping the DNA.
their product met that criteria or they could let the agency confirm that it did. The EPA had registered PIPs for use on corn, cotton, soyabeans, potatoes, plums and papayas since 1995, Chemical & Engineering News said. Its latest proposal followed a similar Department of Agriculture ruling finalised in May to streamline the regulatory process for approving GE crops. Both actions were prompted by a June 2019 White House executive order directing federal agencies to overhaul the process for approving crops produced with biotechnology, Chemical & Engineering News said.
Bayer announces billion dollar cost cuts German chemical giant Bayer has announced plans for more than €1.5bn (US$1.76bn) of cost cuts from 2024 to offset a drop in demand for agricultural products, Reuters reported on 30 September. The company said COVID-19 had had a bigger impact on the crop science business than expected due to low commodity prices, a decrease in biofuel consumption and intensified competition in the soyabean market. The latest cuts were in addition to annual savings of €2.6bn (US$3.06bn) as of 2022, which had been announced in November 2018. Bayer was also considering exiting non-strategic businesses or brands, Reuters said. Meanwhile, the company said in September that it was making progress on a final deal to settle US lawsuits over its Roundup weedkiller, and that it was now reworking a part of
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IN BRIEF
allowed plants to make the substances. These substances, called plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs), were exempt from regulation under the federal pesticide law and the law that regulated pesticide residues on food if they were created by conventional breeding. However, the EPA’s proposal would extend that exemption to include PIPs created with biotechnology. To qualify for exemption, the substances would have to pose no greater risk than those created by conventional breeding and it would also have to be possible to make them by conventional methods. Developers would be allowed to determine whether
its US$11bn deal, announced in May, that would address future Roundup cases. The company inherited the lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes cancer following its 2018 US$63bn purchase of global agrochemical firm Monsanto. Reuters reported on 15 September that all law firms that had taken cases to trial had settled with Bayer, covering around 15,000 lawsuits. Bayer estimated it faced
125,000 filed and unfiled claims over Roundup. Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used herbicide and Roundup is used in combination with Bayer’s genetically modified seeds, including soyabeans and corn, which are resistant to it. Bayer denies claims that Roundup or its active ingredient glyphosate causes cancer, saying decades of independent studies have shown the product is safe for human use.
EC approves new Bayer GM soyabean for food and feed use The European Commission (EC) has approved a GM soyabean produced by Bayer for food and feed use, but not cultivation, in the EU, Euractiv reported on 1 October. German agrichemicals firm Bayer said its new XtendFlex soyabean had been developed to confer tolerance to three major herbicides: dicamba, glufosinate-ammonium and glyphosate. “With this authorisation, Bayer looks for16 OFI – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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ward to a full launch in the USA and Canada in 2021,” a Bayer representative said. However, Green MEP Tilly Metz told Euractiv that the import of herbicide-tolerant GMOs, particularly GM soyabeans which could be grown in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, risked undermining the EU’s international commitments for climate including on the protection of forests and biodiversity. She also had concerns that
these crops could be exposed to higher and repeated doses of the complementary herbicides, potentially leading to a higher quantity of residues in the harvest. Eric Gall, policy manager at EU organics association IFOAM, said that contamination at the production stage was not a direct concern as the soyabean had been authorised for use in food and feed, rather than cultivation on EU territory. www.ofimagazine.com
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