Cementing a partnership beginning in 2011, Syngenta (IW 1000/348), the world's biggest agrochemicals firm, announced on Wednesday a $113 million deal to buy U.S. biotech firm Pasteuria Bioscience.
Under the terms of the agreement, Syngenta acquires Pasteuria Bioscience for $86 million, with deferred payments of up to $27 million.
The aim of the partnership, it added, was to develop biological products against plant pests known as nematodes using naturally occurring soil bacteria, Pasteuria.
The parasite affects all crops, Syngenta said, adding that the Pasteuria acquisition would "support integrated solutions across a broad variety of crops such as soybean, corn, cereals, sugarbeet and vegetables".
This was thanks to the Pasteuria Bioscience’s "know-how for in-vitro production of Pasteuria, enabling commercial scale manufacturing", Syngenta said.
Announcing the deal, Syngenta's operations chief John Atkin said it was "a further example of our strategy of incorporating biological controls within our integrated offer to growers.”
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
