BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Mycogen reviving profit picture

August 30, 1993 7:00 AM UTC

After predicting three or four years ago that it would reach profitability, MYCO instead embarked on an expansion program to endow it with a broader product line and technology base.

Starting as a company based on Bacillus thuringiensis - which kills insect larvae that ingest it, but not adult insects - MYCO acquired rights to Safer's fatty acid technology in 1989, giving it a contact pesticide, M-Pede, that can be sprayed on insects such as white fly and aphids. In 1991, MYCO bought Soilserv, a Salinas Valley crop protection specialist, to learn more about how farmers use pesticides. The acquisition last year of a majority stake in Agrigenetics gave MYCO the ability to put pesticides inside the crops themselves...