688 New PGRs: High Risk Investment?

Plant growth regulators (PGRs) account for only a few percent of the worldwide sales of crop protectants. In recent years, most companies have drastically reduced their activities in the PGR area. The factors that have been of major relevance in this development are: a) Finding, developing and marketing a new PGR is more difficult and requires a considerably higher input as compared to other types of crop protectants, b) many segments of the market are fairly saturated with competitively priced products, and c) intensified legislation for the registration of new, and the re-registration of established products, has become a severe constraint, due to its absorbing large working and financial capacities. For these and other reasons, new types of PGRs will be economically viable only under certain circumstances, such as: a) A sufficiently large and profitable market guarantees a reasonable return on investment, b) costs for registration can be reduced by developing naturally occurring compounds, which may require considerably less toxicological and eco-toxicological studies, and c) PGR-like side activities of an existing herbicide, fungicide or insecticide can be exploited, which would, again, significantly reduce the costs for registration.