DuPont’s Pipeline Includes New Fungicide, Insecticide and Nematicide
23 November 2015 
Kathleen Shelton, Global Technology Director, DuPont Crop Protection
DuPont Crop Protection works hard to respond to growers’ changing needs and desires.
“We focus on creating new molecules that have a more sustainable profile than products on the market today,” says Dr. Kathleen Shelton, Global Technology Director, DuPont Crop Protection. “We respond to growers needs by bringing these products to the market to control pest impact and maximize yield.”
DuPont uses a high-throughput screening process to evaluate tens of thousands of molecules for biological activity. That’s just the beginning of a process that can take as many as 10 years before a product reaches growers.
FCI magazine spoke with Shelton about the products in DuPont’s crop protection pipeline. Here’s a look at what is and will be available in the next few years.
Coming Attractions
In the United States, DuPont released Cyazypyr, which helps control sucking and piercing insects, Shelton says. “We are continuing to launch that around the world. That’s a pretty big effort for us this year and next.”
Cyazypyr is the active ingredient in DuPont’s Verimark, soil-applied, and Exirel, foliar-applied, insect controls for use on fruit and vegetable crops. Cyazypyr products fall under the EPA’s Reduced Risk Pesticide Program for all labeled crops, which means they have short worker reentry and preharvest intervals.
“The other product that we’re extremely excited about that recently has been approved by the EPA is Zorvec,” Shelton says. “That will be utilized mainly in potatoes and grapes. It controls powdery mildew and potato late blight.”
Zorvec contains oxathiapiprolin, a new class of fungicide, which received registration approval by the U.S. EPA in September. DuPont hopes to launch Zorvec in Mexico, China and Australia this year, but launches will not be everywhere around the world, Shelton Says. Zorvec offers a growers a new tool in the control of diseases in potatoes, grapes, vegetables and other specialty crops. The insecticide offers a favorable toxicological and environmental profiles, combined with low use rates, while providing large margins of safety for consumers, agricultural workers and the environment.
“We have a selective marketing plan. There’s a lot of good information out there that growers are already hearing.”
The company granted Syngenta a license to develop products containing oxathiapiprolin. Under the terms, Syngenta will receive exclusive rights for foliar and soil uses on all crops in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
A soon-to-be launched product is designed specifically for the Asia-Pacific market. It is specific to the brown plant hopper, a devastating pest in the rice market. It is effective on brown plant hoppers that in large part have become resistant to current practices, Shelton says.
“Once it appears, it is extremely difficult to control,” Shelton says.
DuPont Crop Protection scientists looking at cucumber plants in the growth chamber, prior to starting a test for DuPont Zorvec.
DuPont hopes to launch the molecule in Asia-Pacific countries in late 2017 or early 2018.
Further back in the pipeline, closer to four or five years from commercialization, DuPont has found chemistry targeted to control nematodes.
“We have a nematicide that we are very excited about because (it is) more sustainable,” Shelton says. “This product will have an improved ecological profile over products on the market today.”
That’s not the only product that will make its debut years from now.
“We have an insecticide that has a new mode of action that is effective on sucking insects,” Shelton says. “Insects are one of the areas where resistance management is really critical to the grower.”
Keys to Success
DuPont has been recognized for the quality of its pipeline. That success doesn’t come easy.
“We have a culture and quality of people that will sustain our pipeline for a very long time,” Shelton says. “We’ve looked at what creates an innovative culture in DuPont. When people know their work is going to have an impact on growers’ needs or is going to bring a new and innovative product to the market, it creates an innovative culture that makes people want to work in that area and work well.”
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