Plant Health Care (PHC ) has submitted a new application to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to register its novel peptide product for the control of damaging soil nematodes.

The peptide product up for registration, which is also known as PHC949, is the second new product from Plant Health Care’s PREtec (or ‘Vaccines for Plants’) technology platform. 

As a patent-protected biological product provider to global agriculture markets, Plant Health Care plans one major new launch every year. This year, the company is targeting PHC949 against nematodes (soil pests), a market forecast to be worth $1.6 billion globally by 2025.

The company explained that these pests reduce crop yields by some $100 billion annually. 

In the United States, the PHC949 peptide is being co-developed with Wilbur-Ellis for nematode control in high-value specialty crops. Wilbur-Ellis, a $3.4bn distributor of crop inputs, plans to launch the product in 2H of 2023, soon after registration by the EPA.

To date, a number of field trials conducted of PHC949 in the United States have demonstrated ‘outstanding’ control of nematodes, the company outlined. For example, in peppers, PHC949 increased marketable yield by about 3,265 lbs/acre, worth an extra $2,070/acre, it reported.

The company further highlighted that several field trials are also underway to demonstrate the value of the novel PHC949 peptide in soybeans as well as in other crops in the US and Brazil.

The Company said it expects global sales of PHC949 to reach into the ‘tens of millions of dollars’ over the long-term and to become a significant value driver for the Company.

Shares in Plant Health Care were trading 4.18% higher at 9.475p following the news.

Derived from natural proteins, PREtec is an environmentally friendly approach to protecting crops and increasing yields which also aims to make conventional farming more sustainable.

Plant Health Care has invested more than $25 million in inventing and developing the PREtec platform over the last eight years. The company outlined to investors that it now plans to achieve at least one major launch of a PREtec product into a major market, every year.

The Company said it has now made a regulatory submission to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the use of PHC949 to control nematodes pests on a wide range of crops and that the EPA’s evaluation process is now expected to take approximately 18 months.

Nematode pests are found in farmland worldwide and cause extensive damage to crops, reducing yields by approximately $100 billion annually. In the California state alone, nematode damage results in approximately $1.6 billion in annual yield losses for almond growers.

PHC949 enables plants to resist nematode infestation and leads to increased plant vigour and yield in a variety of crops. Unlike traditional chemical soil fumigants used to control nematodes, PHC949 leaves beneficial soil organisms unharmed, the Company explained.

Plans are currently underway to submit PHC949 in late 2022 for registration in Brazil, setting the stage for commercialization of PHC949 for use on soybeans in Brazil in 2024, it added.

Commenting on this morning’s news, Chris Richards, Chief Executive of Plant Health Care said: “We are pleased to have achieved this critical milestone in bringing PHC949 to market and are looking forward to commercial launch in the US after regulatory approval in 2023.”

Richards said farmers are “clamouring for sustainable solutions to protect their crops” given the large number of chemical nematicides that have been withdrawn from the market to date.

The Group is confident that PHC949 is “a valuable tool for growers offering a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to protect their crops from destructive nematodes.”

“The regulatory submission of PHC949 follows the introduction of Saori® in Brazil during 2021 and the planned launch of PHC279 in the USA following regulatory approval later this year.  

He said PHC is “on target to achieve at least one major launch of a PREtec product, every year and that the company is excited “about the potential for products based on our ‘Vaccines for Plants’ PREtec peptides, which are targeting markets valued in total at $5 billion.”

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