BASEL, Switzerland & CHASSIEU, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 18, 2025--
Amoebas. These single-celled microorganisms are now at the heart of one of agriculture’s latest biological innovation – a bio-fungicide capable of protecting wheat and other cereal crops from crippling fungal diseases that cost global agriculture billions of dollars in annual crop losses and quality.
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This new development, made from the lysate of the amoeba Willaertia magna C2c Maky, holds strong potential to advance biological crop protection. In trials, the candidate demonstrated its effectiveness in combating the fungi responsible for these fungal diseases and helped activate the plants' defence responses. As a next‑generation biological, it is built on a biological active substance and designed to fit modern integrated crop management.
Syngenta Crop Protection, a global leader in biologicals and other innovative crop protection technologies, and French greentech innovator Amoéba SA, have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and commercialize groundbreaking biocontrol solutions for the EU and UK markets, focusing on cereals and field crops. The parties plan to negotiate a definitive distribution agreement with a target timeline of spring 2026. This strategic collaboration aims to offer farmers advanced biological solutions that enhance the sustainability of their farming practices, address the challenge of increasing pest resistance to existing products, and offer relief to farmers facing a shrinking toolbox of crop protection technologies.
The initial focus of the partnership will be on combating the main wheat diseases, namely septoria tritici blotch (STB) and yellow rust. These two diseases are among the most economically damaging wheat diseases across Europe and the UK, impacting an estimated 9-12 million hectares of wheat annually. In Germany alone, STB causes yield losses of 5-50% and costs of €1.5 billion annually, while yellow rust can reduce yields by 10-70% and even lead to total crop failure in susceptible varieties, according to recognized industry and academic sources.
Matthew Pickard, Syngenta’s Head of Seedcare and Biologicals for Europe, said: “At Syngenta, we are committed to deliver advanced, effective biological solutions at the cutting edge of science. We’re proud to work with Amoéba to offer nature-inspired solutions that empower farmers in these important markets.”
“We are very pleased with the collaboration with Syngenta, a global leader in agricultural innovation,” affirms Benoit Villers,Chairman of the Board of Amoéba and Jean-François Doucet, CEO of Amoéba. "This agreement, which should lead to distribution and development partnerships between our two companies, is a major step forward for Amoéba. It gives us the opportunity to combine our scientific expertise with Syngenta's widely recognised leadership in cereal protection and the marketing of biocontrol solutions. Finally, it perfectly illustrates how collaboration between innovators in the sector can make a difference for farmers while paving the way for broader applications in field crops."
Founded in 2010, Amoéba has developed a patented biocontrol application based on lysate from the amoeba Willaertia magna, which received the prestigious Bernard Blum Gold Medal in October 2025 as the most promising biocontrol solution worldwide. In June 2025, the active substance received EU approval following EFSA’s scientific assessment and a European Commission decision. Product‑specific authorizations are in progress.
About Syngenta
Syngenta is a global leader in agricultural innovation with a presence in more than 90 countries. Syngenta is focused on developing technologies and farming practices that empower farmers, so they can make the transformation required to feed the world’s population while preserving our planet. Its bold scientific discoveries deliver better benefits for farmers and society on a bigger scale than ever before. Guided by its Sustainability Priorities, Syngenta is developing new technologies and solutions that support farmers to grow healthier plants in healthier soil with a higher yield. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland; Syngenta Seeds is headquartered in the United States. Read our stories and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram & X.
About Amoéba
Founded in 2010, Amoéba is a greentech company based in Chassieu (Lyon, France) whose ambition is to become a major player in the treatment of microbiological risk based on the patented use of amoebae in the plant protection and cosmetics sectors.
With know-how that is unique in the world and protected by numerous patents, Amoéba is currently the only company capable of exploiting the full potential of the Willaertia amoeba on an industrial scale and cultivating it in sufficient volumes to offer biological solutions that constitute a viable alternative to the chemical products widely used today. Amoéba is currently focusing on the global biocontrol market for plant protection and on the cosmetics market. As the marketing of plant protection products is subject to obtaining local regulatory authorisations, the Company has carried out the necessary regulatory procedures and filed registration dossiers in Europe and the United States. The active substance has obtained approval in 2022 in the USA and in 2025 in Europe. Product approvals have been granted in the USA and are expected in the coming months in Europe.
The cosmetic application does not require prior approval from a competent authority in Europe or the United States. The cosmetic ingredient is already registered on the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) list, paving the way for it to be marketed worldwide except in China, where local approval is required.
Amoéba is listed on Euronext Growth (ALMIB). The company is a member of the Bpifrance Excellence network and is eligible for the PEA-PME scheme.
For more information, visit www.amoeba-nature.com
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This document may contain forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as ‘expect’, ‘would’, ‘will’, ‘potential’, ‘plans’, ‘prospects’, ‘estimated’, ‘aiming’, ‘on track’ and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.
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Syngenta and Amoeba SA to develop and commercialize biocontrol solutions for EU and UK
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian federal and state government leaders on Monday agreed to immediately overhaul already-tough national gun control laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach, leaving at least 15 people dead.
The action would include renegotiating the landmark national firearms agreement that virtually banned rapid-fire rifles after a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, galvanizing the country into action, the nine leaders' said in a statement after an emergency meeting.
The violence erupted at the end of a summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, an icon of Australia’s cultural life. They included hundreds gathered for the “Chanukah by the Sea” event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival with food, face painting and a petting zoo.
At least 38 people, including two police officers, were being treated in hospitals after the massacre, when the two suspected shooters fired on the beachfront festivities. Those killed included a 10-year-old girl, a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor.
None of the dead or wounded victims have been formally named by the authorities. Identities of those killed, who ranged in age from 10 to 87, began to emerge in news reports Monday.
Among them was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an organizer of the family Hanukkah event that was targeted, according to Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide and sponsors events during major Jewish holidays.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details. French President Emmanuel Macron said a French citizen, identified as Dan Elkayam, was among those killed.
Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney that her husband, Alexander Kleytman, was among the dead. The couple were both Holocaust survivors, according to The Australian newspaper.
Police shot the two suspected shooters, a father and son. The 50-year-old father died at the scene. His 24-year-old son remained in a coma in hospital on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Police won't reveal their names.
Albanese confirmed that Australia’s main domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Agency, had investigated the son for six months in 2019.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that ASIO had examined the son’s ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State group cell. Albanese did not describe the associates, but said ASIO was interested in them rather than the son.
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said.
Albanese had proposed new gun restrictions, including limiting the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain and reviewing existing licenses over time.
His proposals were announced after the authorities revealed that the older suspected gunman had held a gun license for a decade and amassed his six guns legally.
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” Albanese said.
The horror at Australia’s most popular beach was the deadliest shooting in almost three decades since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. The removal of rapid-fire rifles has markedly reduced the death tolls from such acts of violence since then.
Albanese called the Bondi massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
Government leaders on Monday proposed restricting gun ownership to Australian citizens, a measure that would have excluded the older suspect, who came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa and became a permanent resident after marrying a local woman. Officials wouldn’t confirm what country he had migrated from.
His son, who doesn't have a gun license, is an Australian-born citizen.
The government leaders also proposed the “additional use of criminal intelligence” in deciding who was eligible for a gun license. That could mean the son’s suspicious associates could disqualify the father from owning a gun.
Chris Minns, premier of New South Wales where Sydney is the state capital, said his state's gun laws would change, but he could not yet detail how.
“It means introducing a bill to Parliament to — I mean to be really blunt — make it more difficult to get these horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community,” Minns said.
“If you’re not a farmer, you’re not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons that put the public in danger and make life dangerous and difficult for New South Wales Police?” Minns asked.
Meanwhile, the massacre provoked questions about whether Albanese and his government had done enough to curb rising antisemitism. Jewish leaders and the massacre’s survivors expressed fear and fury as they questioned why the men hadn’t been detected before they opened fire.
“There’s been a heap of inaction,” said Lawrence Stand, a Sydney man who raced to a bar mitzvah celebration in Bondi when the violence erupted to find his 12-year-old daughter.
“I think the federal government has made a number of missteps on antisemitism,” Alex Ryvchin, spokesperson for the Australian Council of Executive Jewry, told reporters gathered on Monday near the site of the massacre. “I think when an attack such as what we saw yesterday takes place, the paramount and fundamental duty of government is the protection of its citizens, so there’s been an immense failure.”
On Monday, hundreds arrived near the scene to lay flowers at a growing pile of floral tributes. There were words of pride, too, for a man who was captured on video appearing to tackle and disarm one gunman, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.
The man was identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed. The 42-year-old fruit shop owner and father of two was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman and survived.
Al Ahmed, an Australian citizen who migrated from Syria in 2006, underwent surgery on Monday, his family said.
“Ahmed is a real-life hero. Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Minns posted on social media with a photo of the premier sitting at the end of al Ahmed’s hospital bed.
Al Admed's parents, who moved to Australia in recent months, said their son had a background in the Syrian security forces.
“My son has always been brave. He helps people. He’s like that,” his mother, Malakeh Hasan al Ahmed, told ABC through an interpreter.
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Over the past year, the country was rocked by antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population lives.
The Australian government has enacted various measures to counter a surge in antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he warned Australia’s leaders months ago about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision, in line with scores of other countries, to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the previous attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. Authorities have not suggested Iran was linked to Sunday’s massacre.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand and McGuirk from Melbourne, Australia.
Governor General Sam Mostyn places flowers at a tribute to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Governor General Sam Mostyn, left, greets MP, Allegra Spender, at a gathering at a flower memorial to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman is escorted from a flower memorial outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman kneels and prays at a flower memorial to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A couple lay flowers at a tribute to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
