Ag Tech Talk: Enko’s Tom Meade Explores What Big Players Are Investing in for New Molecules
In this episode of Ag Tech Talk by AgriBusiness Global, we’ll be chatting with Tom Meade, Chief Science Officer for Enko, as he explores the future of crop protection and the evolution of crop protection products. Meade also discusses how the company takes a different approach in discovering and developing novel products for farmers to protect their crops from pests and disease.
* This is an edited and partial transcript of this podcast.
ABG: How have recent regulatory changes impacted the development of crop protection products in the last 10 years, and what challenges or opportunities have risen as a result?
Tom Meade: There have been a lot of changes focused around two areas, which are safety to people, which of course is paramount, but also safety to the environment. I would say that environmental safety has become a bigger concern. The requirements on both fronts have become more stringent. Companies have invested more to meet those safety requirements.
It’s a tremendous opportunity to take a different approach in discovering new crop protection chemistries, which is what we’ve done at Enko with the intention of safety protocols built in at the very beginning. The major players have increased investment in regulatory-driven types of science and assessments. They’re doing a lot of the studies earlier to de-risk molecules.
There are lots of other factors that go into moving molecules effectively through a pipeline. They have to be efficacious. They have to deliver value and meet the needs of the consumers. And so, bringing those costs up earlier has, as a consequence, taken again a much more focused approach. This sort of lowers those costs while still increasing the probability of success later in the process.
ABG: What are some of the key trends and innovations in crop protection products that you believe will shape its future over the next decade, such as nanotechnology?
TM: Formulations are extremely important. Once we get an active ingredient, then how do we get that active ingredient to target pests is critical. That can be reducing drift so that the product stays where it’s placed or actually increasing the effectiveness of the product.
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