05 September 2026, California: Belgian biocontrol company Biotalys has secured product registration in California for its biofungicide EVOCA, a milestone the company says validates its underlying protein engineering platform and strengthens the regulatory pathway for its next generation product. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) granted the state registration on September 2, 2026.
EVOCA is a protein based biocontrol fungicide built on Biotalys’ AGROBODY platform, a technology that uses engineered proteins, similar in concept to antibody fragments, to target plant pathogens. The product is designed to control Botrytis (grey mold) and powdery mildew, two of the most damaging and economically costly diseases for fruit and vegetable growers worldwide. Botrytis alone causes significant losses in grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and a wide range of other specialty crops, and resistance to conventional chemical fungicides has been building for years, making new modes of action commercially valuable.
The California approval follows US Environmental Protection Agency registration of EVOCA, which Biotalys received in December 2025, and a Florida state registration earlier in 2026. California is significant because the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation runs its own independent scientific review process on top of federal EPA approval, and it is widely regarded in the crop protection industry as having among the most rigorous product evaluation standards in the world. Winning approval there is generally viewed as a strong signal of a product’s safety and efficacy profile, and it opens access to California’s large and high value fruit and vegetable growing regions.
Biotalys CEO Carlo Boutton said meeting the state’s scientific and regulatory standards underscores the potential of the company’s AGROBODY biocontrol technology. The company is now working toward approval of EVOCA NG, a next generation, higher performance version of the product built on the same protein platform. Biotalys has said it expects to bring EVOCA NG to US growers by 2029, with a European launch targeted for 2030, pending the outcome of an ongoing EU regulatory review. The company has pointed to a combined US and European market opportunity for the EVOCA product line worth an estimated 1.1 billion dollars.
For Biotalys, a smaller, publicly listed biotech (Euronext Brussels: BTLS), each incremental registration is a meaningful commercial and financial milestone, since biocontrol companies of its size depend heavily on regulatory progress to secure partnerships, licensing deals and investor confidence ahead of full commercial launch. The California registration adds another jurisdiction where EVOCA can now be sold, expanding the near term revenue base while the company continues development work on its pipeline.
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