DuPont Highlights R&D Activities at Advion Launch Symposium

NAPLES, FLA. – When DuPont Professional Products launched an aggressive business plan three years ago to enter the structural pest control industry it promised to invest heavily in new product research and development. Pest management professionals are beginning to see the fruits of that investment with the recent introduction of Advion® cockroach gel bait, featuring DuPont’s proprietary active ingredient indoxacarb, and a planned extension of the Advion product line into the lucrative ant market in the not-too-distant future. A termiticide also is in development.

“We’re very heavily invested in the development area,” Mike McDermott, global business leader, DuPont Professional Products, told attendees of the Advion brand products Launch Symposium in Naples, Fla., earlier this week. An important part of that investment, according to McDermott, is in people as evidenced by the recent addition of Dr. Mark Coffelt as the new global development manager at DuPont Professional Products. “We’re pleased to have Mark join our team to lead our development efforts,” he said, along with Dr. Clay Scherer, development manager – pest; Dr. Bill McClellan, development consultant; and Dr. Chuck Silcox, development manager – turf. “We also have two formulation specialists dedicated to the business,” McDermott said, pointing out that formulations technology is playing an increasingly important role in new product research and development, as well as extending the value of existing brands.

Following McDermott on the program was Dr. Clay Scherer, who provided a technical overview of DuPont’s proprietary active ingredient indoxacarb and its unique mode of action – MetaActiveTM “It’s a rare moment when a manufacturer gets to bring a new class of chemistry to market,” Scherer said. “The goal was to create a molecule that was very specific to insects and very effective against insects. No other insecticide affects insects the way indoxacarb does.”

Discovered by DuPont scientists, indoxacarb is a non-repellent insecticide that has been designated a reduced-risk insecticide by EPA. “It offers a novel mode of action,” according to Scherer, and there’s “no concern about cross resistance” from older classes of chemistry. The unique mode of action featured in indoxacarb was developed by DuPont researchers to target the insect’s nervous system. After ingesting the product, the target insect’s own internal enzymes change the molecular structure and attributes of indoxacarb into the more potent MetaActive compound, resulting in paralysis, followed by death. “The result is very fast activity,” Scherer said, as well as “superior performance and exponential control.”

Look for additional coverage of the Advion brand products Launch Symposium, including presentations by Dr. Phil Koehler, University of Florida, and Dr. Charles Barr of Barr Research & Consulting, College Station, Texas, at www.pctonline.com.