Syngenta Japan developing “Resistance-breaking” agrochemicals

A breakthrough concept germinated at Syngenta Japan that some chemicals could have the ability to break down the resistance that harmful insects and weeds had acquired against existing pesticide ingredients is promising the commercialization of such a “resistance-breaking” chemical.

The company acted on its idea and found that pymetrozine the active ingredient of its Chess insecticide, behaved not only as an insecticide but also as a resistance breaker when mixed with other active ingredients.

Studies that it conducted in which it added its proprietary chemical to insecticides already on the market to which tolerance had been built up, including those of competitors, showed that, through interactions between them, its chemical could destroy part of the specific sites on the other active ingredients that are responsible for pesticide resistance, allowing these active ingredients’ lost efficacy against their target insects to be recovered.

Pesticides are generally destined to lose their effectiveness over time as a result of their target pests gaining tolerance to them, and they are often driven from the market eventually by this resistance. With the development of new active ingredients becoming increasingly difficult, Syngenta Japan hit upon its idea of resistance breaking as a way to resurrect its older pesticides whose market validity had been lost in this way.

The company envisions the practical application of its resistance-breaking concept to insecticides first, with development efforts to then shift to fungicides and herbicides.