Crop Genetics International Corp. (CGI) said Tuesday that itspartner for its insecticidal virus (IV) program, Du PontAgricultural Products of Wilmington, Del., has committed afurther $2 million for the project.

CGI has been concentrating on the low-cost production ofinsecticidal viruses during the past year, according to ToddTaylor, CGI's director of business development. Du Pont hasfocused on the field and formulation development.

One industry analyst said that although the IV product seemsto be efficacious, the real issue is being able to produceinsecticidal viruses cost-effectively. "The partnership hasn'tdemonstrated that they can cost-effectively produce it," hesaid.

"Cost-effectiveness in the past has been a problem," Taylorsaid, "but we're overcoming that readily. We intend to be alow-cost producer of IV products." He would not disclose howCGI planned reduce production costs.

CGI's new 75,000-square-foot production facility is due to beoperational by the third quarter of 1993, said Taylor, whopredicted that the company may have a product on the marketwithin two years.

The Du Pont agreement is the only important alliance that CGIhas, Taylor told BioWorld, and therefore is very important. "OurIV products are on the shortest route to the marketplace of anyothers we have in development," he said.

John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology StockNewsletter in Berkeley, Calif., is happy with what's going onwith Du Pont. "We have CGI as a 'buy' and added it to ourmodel portfolio," he said.

CGI of Hanover, Md., is developing environmentally safe cropprotection systems to control insects, diseases and weeds.

-- Michelle Slade Associate Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.