A pesticide producer is a step closer to having products to offer the turf care market. TyraTech, a producer of natural pesticide products, has progressed in its partnership with pesticide supplier Arysta LifeScience as part of its 2006 exclusive global licensing and co-development agreement to manufacture and market a number of insecticide products for certain horticultural markets.
TyraTech is developing proprietary compounds that target receptors found on insects and other invertebrates, but are not found on humans or animals. These compounds – called TyraTech Naturals - are derived from plants and can kill insects with the potency of chemical pesticides, but without their toxicity. The partnership with Arysta is to develop new products based on the TyraTech compounds for the control of insects in certain horticultural markets. The partnership has different progressive development stages, which when they are successfully reached, result in milestone payments to TyraTech.
The two milestone payments above relate to achieving specific insecticide efficacy and cost targets for TyraTech Natural products in two of the licensed applications. Field testing for the lead product prototypes has been underway since late 2006, when an exclusivity payment was received.
"The global horticultural insecticide market includes fruits and vegetables as well as professional turf areas such as golf courses, where safer, more responsible insecticides are increasingly demanded by both the consumer as well as the regulatory agencies," says Douglas Armstrong, Ph.D., c.e.o. of TyraTech. "TyraTech's technology is designed to meet this opportunity with active insecticides that have a strong combination of potency and safety, as well as providing a new solution to the increasing problem of insect resistance to traditional insecticides. With our partner Arysta, we can not only accelerate the development of products, but also have an experienced sales and marketing capability to bring these products into the commercial marketplace."
TyraTech is actively developing products for other markets that require safe and effective control of insects and invertebrate pathogens. In October TyraTech announced the release of its first TyraTech Naturals insecticide product, a general-use crawling insect spray for sale to businesses – particularly the hospitality industry – for direct insect control in inhabited spaces. Enabled by the safety profile of TyraTech Naturals, the Company is also working in close alliance with Kraft Foods to develop a line of functional food products intended for the prevention or control of intestinal parasites. The successful achievement of a major development milestone in this partnership was also recently announced by TyraTech.
