Successful Pheromone Production Scale-Up

Provivi® is an emerging company using pheromones to protect crops from major damaging insects, today announced successful pheromone biosynthesis scale up at the EW Biotech Scale-Up plant in Leuna, Germany.
In collaboration with EW Biotech, Provivi scaled up its pheromone biosynthesis process to produce 7 metric tons of a key component of the Fall Armyworm pheromone.
“The successful implementation of the Provivi fermentation and downstream process at commercial scale demonstrates both the robustness of the technology and the high-performance quality of the EW Biotech team,” said Mike Chen, Director Bioprocess at Provivi. “This result has been made more enjoyable by the open and collaborative interactions between the two technical teams.”
“We are encouraged and excited by this result,” said Dr. Peter Meinhold, Co-Founder and CTO. “We appreciate EW Biotech’s contribution to this milestone in Provivi’s history. This scale-up will enable the protection of ca 400.000 hectares of corn against Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and serve as basis for the first commercial sales of Provivi’s PherogenTM product, expected later this year in Mexico and Kenya.
“We are excited that we could contribute to this important step for providing the world with more sustainable crop-protection products through Provivi’s innovative approach,” said Tonchy Ugrinovic, Commercial Managing Director of EW Biotech.
“Utilizing the resources of EW Biotech was a smart move of Provivi” said Dr. Michael Katzberg, Operations Managing Director of EW Biotech. “The approach of a shared economy together with a very well-designed process, made fast commercialization feasible.”
Provivi® is developing a family of safe, effective, and economical pheromone solutions for crop protection. Pheromones are substances that serve as highly selective attractants for insects, allowing the control of deleterious pests while preserving beneficial insects. Provivi’s patented production method enables a step-change in the cost of manufacturing pheromones, allowing use of this proven tool in high-acreage crops such as corn, rice, and soy.