Dr Nigel Uttley: "It takes, on average, eight to ten years from discovery to registration for an agrochemical product, during which time, some 50,000 products will have been screened and discarded for the one that achieves commercial launch."

The managing director of UK-based Enigma Marketing Research, Dr Nigel Uttley, talks to Sanjiv Rana about the strategies for competing in the off-patent agrochemical market.

After a period of stagnation and even contraction, the global agrochemical market at around $35,000 million
rebounded last year to grow at close to 10%. Logically, the potentially larger pie in the years to come should result in rosy prospects for all players in the sector.

Dr Nigel Uttley feels that it all depends on which part of the pie a company operates in. He divides the agrochemical industry into three broad sectors:

1. Proprietary products with an enforceable patent, accounting for around 30% of the market.

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2. Off-patent proprietary products, where the active ingredient is offpatent but the final formulated
product: has some proprietary technology (such as a new delivery system, surfactant or safener); is linked to GM crops (such as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops); is a mixture product containing a patented active
ingredient; or has data protection issues that prevent generic manufacturers entering the
market. These products account for the bulk of the market at 42.5%.

3. Generic products, accounting for 27.5% of the market.

Dr Uttley says that the market share of proprietary products has declined over the years....

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