Novo Holdings, a world leading life-science investor, and FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC), an agricultural sciences company, today announced that FMC will acquire BioPhero ApS for a purchase price of approximately USD 200 million.

Denmark-based BioPhero is a pioneer in the production of pheromones used for insect pest control in agriculture, with a vision to make agriculture more sustainable by enabling the application of pheromones for effective pest control in large-scale row crops.  BioPhero has pioneered a highly efficient biotechnology process for manufacturing pheromones at significantly lower costs and with fewer production steps compared to traditional chemical synthesis methods. The early research behind the company was supported with an Exploratory Pre-seed Grant of DKK 700.000 from the Novo Nordisk Foundation in 2014 and a Pre-seed Grant of DKK 2.5 million from Novo Seeds in 2016 and later spun-out from the Technical University of Denmark.

”BioPhero is excited by the opportunity to accelerate our development and the road to market with the objective to make pheromones widely available,”  said Dr. Irina Borodina, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of BioPhero, and continued: “The early investments from Novo Holdings have been essential for the growth of our company.”

Novo Holdings is committed to investing in leading bioindustrial companies addressing environmental and climate-related problems. Novo Holdings has built a significant portfolio of innovative bioindustrial companies and the sale of BioPhero demonstrates the potential of biotechnology in agricultural and industrial applications.

“Novo Holdings believes that biotechnology is a key component in the transition towards a more sustainable society. The technology developed by BioPhero is an excellent example of using nature’s own pheromones to combat pests in a safe and yet efficient way. Novo Holdings has invested in BioPhero since inception and has renewed its commitment to the company in each financing round. We are very satisfied to see the rapid development of the company, and this sale demonstrates that FMC shares our vision of introducing new sustainable solutions in agriculture,” said Søren Møller, Managing Partner at Novo Seeds.

**Danish roots, global ambitions
**In just a few years, BioPhero has undergone a transformation from idea to university spin-out, and further to become a valuable company entering the global market for sustainable crop protection. Following FMC’s acquisition, BioPhero will keep its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“We see strong academic institutions, like the Technical University of Denmark, where BioPhero has its roots, focusing on creating biotechnology-based solutions. Combined with a growing interest for investing in sustainable solutions within agriculture and other fields, I hope we will see more successes like this in the future,” adds Søren Møller.

As a global agricultural sciences company, FMC provides significant opportunities to bring pheromone technology to more agricultural markets around the world.

“We look forward to adding an extensive pheromone platform to our biologicals business and welcoming the BioPhero team to FMC,” said Mark Douglas, FMC President and Chief Executive Officer.

The acquisition of BioPhero is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter 2022.

**Further information
**Christian Mostrup, Senior Programme Lead, +45 3067 4805, cims@novo.dk