Bee Vectoring Technologies announces full EPA submission for its first bio-pesticide BVT-CR7

Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) has announced the submission of its bio-pesticide, BVT-CR7 for registration with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In order to comply with stringent submission requirements, BVT-CR7 underwent eight months of rigorous toxicology tests by certified laboratories in order to demonstrate its safety for humans, bees and the environment. BVT-CR7 passed all required tests.

"The complex and stringent process of formal EPA application submission for our product is one that has been both costly and time consuming, and this is a significant benchmark process in the agricultural industry and indicates BVT goals," said BVT CEO Michael Collinson. "It is however, a highly-critical step in the commercialization of BVT products, one that is set to play a fundamental role in BVT's global marketability and unlock significant opportunities for global market adoption and future revenue potential. It moves BVT from a concept stage company to commercialization on an industry recognised route."

"It is exciting to submit a Bio-pesticide product with such a novel mode of action that can be integrated into a full integrated pest management (IPM) strategy," said BVT's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. John Sutton. "This product is highly versatile in that it has the ability to control multiple diseases in many kinds of crops while at the same time increasing crop vigor and productivity."

CR7, BVT's first bio-pesticide product, is an organic strain of a naturally occurring, ubiquitous beneficial fungus. It is targeted at preventing and controlling significant food crop-destroying diseases such as Sclerotinia, Botrytis, Monilinia, Anthracnose and Alternaria. Beyond disease control, verified results from commercial trials have shown significant additional benefits including crop yield increases as high as 30% or more and longer shelf life of produce.

BVT-CR7 controls diseases at least as effectively as commercial fungicides on a preventative basis. The product provides crop growers a new option for the control of major classes of diseases, new modes of action which strengthen strategies aimed at reducing risks of pathogen resistance to pesticides. The BVT-CR7 mode of action, unlike chemicals, is unlikely to encounter elevated resistance levels in pathogens thereby giving it the potential to be a future-proof, foundational program for growers. This would enable growers to preserve costly chemical fungicides, which are more prone to development of resistance, for occasions when curative applications are needed.

The EPA submission for BVT-CR7 includes use on vegetables as well as high value crops such as almonds, strawberries, blueberries, tree fruits and nuts. It has also been proven to provide highly-effective disease control on major crops such as strawberries, blueberries and sunflowers, and is being evaluated for seed treatment use on major broad acre crops. Unlike other submissions like in FDA there is typically a very low risk in an EPA submission not being approved and the process with correct data results of approvals is founded around the labeling and use of products in a safe manner. Once these approvals are in place the company is able to make claims about the efficacy of the product.

This submission starts the clock for the legislatively mandated 18-month EPA review. This application will now be submitted into the PMRA in Canada with efficacy data on key crops in the coming months. During the EPA review time BVT will be in a position to do demo trials to get customers familiar with products as well as pursuing revenue through other products avenues like stacking etc. .