GREENSBORO, N.C. – Syngenta has announced that it will acquire the DuPont Professional Products insecticide business.

Under the terms of the agreement, Syngenta will acquire established pest control brands Advion and Acelepryn and other intellectual property, as well as a number of employees, according to a press release. Syngenta will also access the related active ingredients and formulated products from DuPont through exclusive supply and licensing agreements.

 "When you look at these three insecticides and the options in the field that we have, they’re very complementary. They’re IP-protected, they’re new and modern. DuPont has done a good job of them to date," says Scott Reasons, head of Syngenta's turf and landscape business. "Then we look at adding these to our portfolio to increase our full portfolio solution opportunity on the specially managed turf." 

 The $125 million transaction, which still must be approved by regulators, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"We intend to give further R&D investment to these products, to take what we think is a great potential today even further into the marketplace. They are patent-protected products, and I’m sure we’ll have R&D investment in each product in the future," Reasons says.

Under the terms of the deal, Syngenta will receive the rights to Advion, Acelepryn, Altriset, Calteryx, Provaunt and Arilon-branded products and end-use registrations, and a license under DuPont’s patents and know-how for indoxacarb,chlorantraniliprole and cyantraniliprole related to their use in the professional product market. 

DuPont will continue to manufacture indoxacarb, chlorantraniliprole, cyantraniliprole and market products containing these active ingredients, such as Coragen and Prevathon in other markets. 

The acquisition comes a year after DuPont’s Imprelis herbicide was linked to widespread damage to non-target plants.

Imprelis, released in the spring of 2011, controlled a wide range of broadleaf weeds with a new active ingredient – aptexor – and a new subclass of the carboxylic acid herbicides. The product gave LCOs a low-volume option that by all accounts controlled of a wide range of weeds, including hard-to-eradicate species like ground ivy and wild violet.

But in early summer of that year, applicators and university researchers in the Northeast and Midwest reported damaged conifers, and mainly Norway spruce and white pine trees. A few months later, DuPont suspended sales of the product and EPA further banned its sale. 

The Imprelis claims resolution Process will remain at DuPont, the compnay reported.

Stay tuned to www.lawnandlandscape.com for more as this story develops.