MoA Technology targets herbicide resistance crisis & raises $8 million

By Mateen Dalal

	MoA Technology has created three platforms: MoA SELECTTM, MoA TARGETTM and MoA GALAXYTM, which would work together for effective herbicide creation.
	 
	MoA Technology is borne out of Oxford University research is aimed at inhibiting herbicide resistance crisis.


MoA Technology Limited, a UK based crop protection discovery firm, reportedly announced that is raised £6.3 million ($8 Million) from a Series A investment round, to create its unique crop safety protection platforms to prevent the global herbicide resistance disaster.

Overuse of smaller range of herbicides has led to growing levels of weed resistance, which is now turning out to be a growing challenge for farmers throughout the world. The growth of weeds is increasing and the only possible way to grow crops yields again is to get new series of efficient and clean herbicides.

Reports cite, like the antibiotic resistance crisis is affecting healthcare, similarly no new major herbicides have been introduced in the market since last 30 years that would efficiently kill weed. Eventually, this has resulted in overreliance on a select number of same products, that in turn has resulted in the advancement of weed resistance.

In 2018, borne-out of the Oxford University Plant Sciences Department, through an innovative research by Dr Clement Champion and Professor Liam Dolan FRS, MoA Technology was established to address this problem. The firm has built its own discovery platform that is aimed at the discovery of advanced, sustainable herbicides with newer modes of action by synthetic as well as natural chemistry.

MoA Technology has created three platforms: MoA SELECTTM, MoA TARGETTM and MoA GALAXYTM. Each of the platforms is powerful individually, but when all of them are used together, they provide the opportunity to transform herbicides creation process & critically find environmentally sustainable, effective herbicides that would work effectively on impeding weed growth.

In the next two years span, MoA technology plans to make various new product candidates to join into development and to build industrial partnerships to present the products in the market.