moa has been highlighted as a company with an innovative approach to the discovery process for new crop protection chemistry.
An article in Chemistry and Engineering News contrasts screening strategies of the major players in crop protection R&D with moa's platforms, Galaxy, Target and Select.
High throughput in vitro screening, which became de rigueur in the 1990s in the search for new active ingredients did not result in the anticipated new wave of exciting chemistry.
Instead, attention has moved to a variety of other ways to protect crops, including biopesticides, precision application, robotics and digital technologies. Yet, resistant weeds, pests and diseases dominate the concerns of the industry. This has been the result of failing to find new modes of action, especially for herbicides.
moa's own approach is an in vivo one using whole plants. In essence, this has the same advantages of traditional screening for herbicides that resulted in blockbuster active ingredients such as glyphosate, sulfonylureas and many others. However, moa's platforms are also high throughput, with a focus on finding new modes of action, which have proved elusive for decades.
Read the article here.
