SOLASTA Bio Hits U.S. Regulatory Milestone As Field Demo Beats Decade-High Whitefly Surge
SOLASTA Bio, a leading agri-biotech company pioneering peptide-based green insecticides, has submitted its first product for registration in the United States, a major step towards bringing its nature-inspired bioinsecticide technology to market.
SOLASTA® Bio’s peptides offer a new way to protect crops and food supplies, targeting pest species while leaving bees and other beneficial insects, as well as the environment, unharmed.
Regulatory packages for the peptide active ingredient and first end-use product, targeting aphids and whiteflies, are now under concurrent review by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR). The submissions build on the EPA’s classification of SOLASTA Bio’s lead peptide as biochemical, a designation that provides a faster, and more cost-effective regulatory pathway than that required for conventional insecticides.
The milestone comes as farmers face mounting pressure from insects and crop pests including aphids and whitefly, many of which have become resistant to existing insecticides, alongside growing restrictions on conventional chemistry.
SOLASTA® Bio’s lead active ingredient is a nature-identical peptide, selected for its consistent efficacy against aphids across multiple crops in extensive field and greenhouse trials. It has a benign ecotoxicology profile, does not bioaccumulate, and has shown no impact on beneficial species or plant health. The first registration will focus on aphid control in leafy greens and vegetable crops.
The company is also seeking recognition from the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) for its technology as an entirely new mode of action, giving US growers a fresh tool for rotating products to stay ahead of pest resistance.
Seeing the science in the field
Alongside the regulatory milestone, SOLASTA® Bio hosted investors and partners in Georgia, USA in early October for its second field demonstration event, which showcased the lead aphid product submitted for registration, with field evaluations against aphids and whiteflies, alongside selected peptides targeting Lepidoptera on different crops.
The demonstration took place against a backdrop of an extraordinary surge in whitefly populations, reported locally to be at levels not seen in more than a decade. In spite of this, across the aphid, whitefly and lepidopteran evaluations, SOLASTA aphid product and peptide treated plots showed visible reductions in leaf-feeding damage and clear improvements in plant vigour, health and overall appearance, with visitors seeing the treatment differences first-hand.
Shireen Davies, CEO and Co-Founder of SOLASTA® Bio said: “Submitting our first product for registration in the US is a defining moment for SOLASTA Bio in building the regulatory and commercial framework that will put our peptide solutions into the hands of growers. It also demonstrates that nature-inspired solutions can represent a genuine paradigm shift in insect control.
“To then show our investors and partners that performance in the field, under whitefly pressure not seen locally in over a decade, was really powerful. They saw for themselves what our trials data has been telling us across crops and geographies worldwide. With a strong pipeline rapidly following our lead product, SOLASTA® Bio is exceptionally well-positioned as we move towards commercialisation.”
These latest achievements build on SOLASTA® Bio’s strong momentum, including a growing portfolio of US, European and RoW patents and an oversubscribed $14 million Series A funding round in 2024. The round attracted leading agricultural and life science investors, including Forbion BioEconomy Fund, Corteva Catalyst and FMC Ventures, underlining industry confidence in the company’s technology.
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