Belgium’s Bi-PA Sells European Rights to TEMAP Biofungicide to Nichino Europe
19 October 2026, Belgium: Belgian crop protection developer Bi-PA has sold all intellectual property rights to its TEMAP biofungicide across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to Nichino Europe, a UK-based subsidiary of Japan’s Nihon Nohyaku Co., handing the product’s regional registration, development and distribution to a larger multinational network as it moves toward wider commercial use.
Bi-PA, founded in 1999 and based in Londerzeel, Belgium, develops crop protection products aimed at supporting integrated pest management programs. The company announced the agreement on September 2, 2026, describing it as a strategic deal that builds on an existing collaboration between the two companies and sets up a framework for continued cooperation. Neither company disclosed financial terms. Bi-PA’s chief executive, Johan De Saegher, and Nichino Europe’s managing director, Manfred Hilweg, both backed the deal, though the companies’ statements did not include extended direct quotes from either executive.
TEMAP is a patented biofungicide based on choline pelargonate, derived from pelargonic acid, which acts as a contact fungicide that breaks down the cell membranes of fungal spores and mycelium. Bi-PA’s development data point to preventive, eradicative and early curative activity against a broad range of fungal diseases in European crops, and the company positions the product as a tool for integrated disease management and for managing fungicide resistance. The active ingredient was recently classified by the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) in group BM 03, a distinct mode of action from the synthetic chemistries that dominate most European fungicide programs.
Nichino Europe, established in 2007 and based in Cambridge, UK, handles registration, development and distribution of its Japanese parent company’s active ingredients across the European market. By acquiring full EMEA rights to TEMAP rather than entering a simple distribution or licensing arrangement, Nichino Europe takes on responsibility for the product’s ongoing regulatory registrations and label expansions across the region, a step that typically signals a company’s intent to scale a product well beyond its current footprint.
Choline pelargonate based products sit in a category of biofungicides that European regulators have generally treated favorably under the European Union’s push to cut chemical pesticide use, since the active ingredient is derived from a naturally occurring fatty acid rather than a synthetic molecule. That regulatory profile, combined with a distinct FRAC classification that gives growers a rotation option against resistant fungal populations, is likely part of what made TEMAP an attractive asset for a company the size of Nichino to acquire outright rather than simply distribute under a shorter-term agreement.
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