Bayer will not take case to Supreme Court for appeal

IN BRIEF

CHINA: German chemical and biotech giant BASF has invested in Chinese biotech start-up Bota Biosciences (Bota Bio), the company announced on 16 March.

Founded in 2019, Bota Bio is an industrial synthetic biotech company, which uses ‘white biotechnology’ or living cells and enzymes to develop and manufacture products for a range of industrial applications including personal care and crop protection.

BASF uses fermentation and biocatalysis to manufacture products such as vitamins and enzymes and is working on processes that use 'white biotechnology' for the production of chemical building blocks from renewable raw materials such as sugar and plant oils.

CANADA: Not-for-profit organisation Protein Industries Canada announced a US$21.7M project on 18 March to produce protein ingredients and oil from locally-grown non-genetically modified (GM) soyabeans that complied with organic and non-GMO labelling standards.

Canada Protein Ingredients would commit about US$15.9M to the partnership, with Protein Industries Canada providing the remaining US$5.8M.

Canada Protein Ingredients would begin production once a site for a new processing facility in Canada was chosen and construction completed. The 25,000 tonnes/year plant would have the potential to increase capacity and expand to other crops.

Semences Prograin would develop new non-GM soyabean varieties for Canada’s growing conditions. DJ Hendrick International and Agrocorp Processing would assist in developing, testing and marketing the new products internationally.

Bayer will not take case to Supreme Court for appeal

German chemical giant Bayer will not appeal a US$20.5M Roundup verdict – the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial – at the Supreme Court, The Recorder reported on 19 March.

The decision would end the litigation brought against Bayer subsidiary Monsanto by Dewayne Johnson, who had alleged in 2018 that exposure to certain glyphosate-based herbicides, including Roundup, had caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bayer inherited the lawsuit following its 2018 takeover of global agrochemical firm Monsanto for US$63bn. It has since faced a a wave of US cancer lawsuits involving Roundup.

Bayer said the Johnson case was not suitable for Supreme Court review because the judgement had been issued by an intermediate-level state court and the portion dealing with whether federal law pre-empted the state’s duty to warn theory had not been published, which meant it would have no bearing on any case besides Johnson’s, The Recorder wrote.

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.

In February, Bayer posted a sharp loss of US$12.8bn in 2020 compared with a net profit of just over US$4.82bn in the previous year.

The company had reached a US$9.6bn settlement in June 2020 covering around 90,000 US lawsuits and is continuing to negotiate to reach agreements in the remainder of cases.

Bayer also announced a US$2bn fund in February to resolve future Roundup cases and the company was awaiting court approval of its new offer, The Jakarta Post wrote.

Battle for dominance of US soya market

German chemical giant Bayer is launching a new genetically modified soyabean in the USA in a bid to retain its dominance over rival Corteva, Reuters reported on 9 April.

Bayer’s new XtendFlex and Corteva’s Enlist E3 soyabeans were set to be the most popular varieties in coming years, the report said.

Bayer's XtendFlex soyabean is resistant to dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate, and received EU authorisation for food, feed, import and processing last September, paving the way for its full launch this year. The company's previous top seller, Xtend, offered resistance to dicamba and glyphosate only.

In 2019, Corteva challenged Monsanto’s two decades-long dominance of the US market by launching Enlist on a small scale. Enlist E3 is resistant to glyphosate and glufosinate, as well as the new 2,4-D choline herbicide.

Corteva said it expected Enlist would account for about 30% of US soyabean plantings this year, an area of around 10.5M ha, and around half of North America's plantings eventually.

Bayer declined to estimate Xtend soya plantings, whichplateaued at around 20.2M ha last year, Reuters said.

A third player, BASF, was also distributing a new soyabean brand, Xitavo, Reuters said. Xitavo was genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate, glufosinate and 2,4-D choline and would cover just a few hundred thousand hectares in its first year.

The USA is projected to plant around 36M ha of soyabeans this year

BASF plans new insecticide launch in Asia-Pacific

German chemical and biotech giant BASF announced in January that it expects to start selling a new insecticide in Australia and Korea by 2023.

Future sales of the Axalion product were also planned in the EU, Brazil, India and other countries, said BASF, which currently supplies the oils and fats market with Credenz and LibertyLink soyabean varieties, as well as InVigor canola hybrids, along with crop protection products.

Pending regulatory approvals, Axalion would be registered for use in a range of crops including soyabeans, cereals and potatoes.