Japan Approves Stacked Biotech Corn Event

Grain corn containing the trait combination of Herculex I Insect Protection and Roundup Ready Corn 2 has received approval for import into Japan, a significant overseas market for North American corn.

This includes food, feed and environmental approvals within the Japanese regulatory system. Corn with these traits offers broad in-plant insect-protection, together with resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide. Herculex I protects the corn plant against European corn borer, southwestern corn borer, western bean cutworm, black cutworm and fall armyworm.

The Herculex I and Roundup Ready traits previously received individual approvals for import into Japan. The Japanese regulatory system requires that the stacked traits complete a separate regulatory review, even when the individual traits have been approved.

Both traits also have been fully approved individually in the United States and Canada. The U.S. and Canadian regulatory systems do not require a separate approval for stacked insect- resistant and herbicide-resistant traits. Herculex I is part of a family of traits being developed in a research collaboration between Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.