Bayer Granted Approval for New Herbicide

Bayer CropScience has received regulatory approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the USA for its new cereal herbicide, pyrasulfotole. This is the first approval granted for the active ingredient, with further registrations expected in Canada and Australia later this year.
The company expects to launch the product under the brand name Huskie in the United States, with sales expected to begin in the spring planting season in 2008.
Pyrasulfotole, which has a new mode of action, is the first HPPD (4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase) inhibitor for cereals to be used in North America, and can be used to control a wide spectrum of broad-leaved weeds. It has also been developed for use in a resistance management program to control sulfonylurea-resistant weeds
This announcement follows one from earlier this year in which Bayer gained European approval for its herbicide tembotrione for use on maize. The company noted that the approval of these two products is part of a launch program initiated in 2000 with the intention of introducing 26 new active ingredients by 2011.