Sumitomo Chemical, BASF ‘Take Major Step’ in Global Development of Novel Fungicide

Sumitomo Chemical and BASF announced that under an existing joint development framework, Sumitomo Chemical has submitted a registration application in the EU for the novel fungicide compound with the ISO common name metyltetraprole. The fungicide, discovered by Sumitomo Chemical, will be trademarked as Pavecto.

The compound belongs to a group of fungicides known as Quinone outside Inhibitors (QoI), and with the chemical structure tetrazolinone, represents novel chemistry in this group.  Pavecto differs from existing QoI fungicides because it controls pathogens that have developed resistance towards strobilurin fungicides currently available on the market. Through this collaboration, both companies have demonstrated that Pavecto is a highly effective fungicide for the control of a broad range of diseases, including Septoria leaf blotch in wheat. In addition, Pavecto will play an important role in resistance management, providing growers with an innovative tool to protect their crops and secure yields.

“This novel fungicide, Pavecto, will become an effective solution to control major diseases and help growers improve their productivity and profitability.  Pavecto will be submitted for registration in more countries, and we look forward to making Pavecto formulated products available to more growers around the world,” said Kimitoshi Umeda, associate officer in charge of AgroSolutions Division-International at Sumitomo Chemical.

“Agriculture is a dynamic market, with ever-changing needs and challenges. Pavecto will complement our fungicide portfolio delivering our promise to support farming with new solutions and technologies,” added Livio Tedeschi, SVP, BASF Crop Protection Europe. “We aim to provide growers across Europe with much needed new tools via several high-performing formulations complemented by existing active ingredients and compounds from our pipeline.”

Further submissions of the registration dossier are planned globally.  Pending regulatory approval, Sumitomo Chemical and BASF expect market introduction of Pavecto-based formulations in the EU from 2022 onwards.