Herculex RW Advances Toward EU Approval With Positive Scientific Safety Opinion

06/04/07 The Herculex RW Rootworm corn trait -- 59122 maize -- has been given a positive safety opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) moving the trait another step closer to approval for food, feed and import into the European Union (EU). The safety opinion from EFSA, the EU's independent scientific authority charged by regulators with review of health and safety issues, represents a significant advancement for the rootworm-resistance trait. In response to EFSA's opinion, the EU Commission now has three months to forward its approval decision to Member States for a vote.

While EFSA's positive safety opinion does not mean that grain that contains the Herculex RW trait is approved for import into the EU yet, this significant milestone is further confirmation that Herculex RW is as safe as conventional corn.

"We are optimistic about bringing this novel technology to the EU market in the very near future," said Dean Oestreich, DuPont vice president, general manager and president of DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

"This trait has already been approved by many countries around the globe," added Antonio Galindez, Dow AgroSciences global leader for crops, "and provides immense value to users by increasing productivity to meet rapidly increasing demand for corn."

Herculex RW was developed jointly by Dow AgroSciences LLC and Pioneer. Both companies strongly encourage EU Member States to approve corn with the Herculex RW trait for food, feed and import into the EU, in keeping with EFSA's positive safety opinion.

The Herculex RW trait provides a high level of protection all season long against western, northern and Mexican larval corn rootworm, thereby dramatically reducing adult rootworm emergence. In the United States alone, damage by corn rootworm currently costs growers about $1 billion annually.

The Herculex RW trait received regulatory approvals for U.S. cultivation in 2005 and was first available in corn hybrids in the U.S. market for the 2006 growing season. The trait is also approved for import and for feed and food use in ten countries around the world: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan and the United States.