Dr. Bob Kennedy
Vestaron’s bioinsecticide technology won a top award at a recent international biopesticide industry conference in Basel, Switzerland, the company announced, noting that its product entry was chosen unanimously by the judges over 12 other companies’ submissions.
Presented at the ABIM Congress, the inaugural Bernard Blum Award for Novel Biocontrol Solutions, was created to recognize innovations that have a high impact in management of pests or diseases while having a low impact on human health and the environment.
Vestaron received the award for its Spear product line, a series of bioinsecticides derived from spider peptides with activity on Lepidopteran, Coleopteran, and several other classes of insects. The Spear product line also uses Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, to improve performance as a part of an integrated pest management system.
Spear products function “primarily as a central nervous inhibitor of target pests,” according to the product label.
Dr. John Sorenson
Bob Kennedy, chief science officer of Vestaron, accepted the award.
The Kalamazoo, Michigan-based company’s director and CEO, John Sorenson, praised the company’s scientists in a news release on the award: “Bob’s leadership of the R&D team is evident and the execution of the science behind this groundbreaking new product has been exceptional. This award further verifies the importance of Vestaron’s discovery platform for new bioinsecticides with the efficacy and safety that these products bring to the industry.”
Vestaron says its products exploit “natural insecticidal properties of a class of peptides which have potent insect killing potential but which are safe to humans, birds, fish and the environment.”
Vestaron is supported by venture capital and reported recently it had closed a round of financing totaling $14 million.
