ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030014
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
Dominion BioSciences Inc. of Blacksburg has teamed with Zeneca Professional Products of Wilmington, Del., to market Dominion's Ecologix bioinsecticide for the control of cockroaches, termites and ants.
Dominion, a privately held company, will develop, gain regulatory approval and manufacture new Ecologix-based products, and Zeneca will handle the marketing of them to professional pest-control operators in North America.
Ecologix products use natural biochemicals that block metabolic pathways used by many insects to produce and store food needed for reproduction. They in effect form a birth control pill for cockroaches and potentially other insects, the company said.
Heather Wren discovered the chemical's effects on cockroaches while working as a research scientist at Virginia Tech. Dominion is in Tech's corporate research center.
Zeneca, which has 6,400 employees in the United States and Canada, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Zeneca Group PLC, a $7.6 billion international biosciences business based in the United Kingdom. Under the agreement, Zeneca will continue to explore expanded uses for Ecologix technology, including controlling termites, ants and other insect pests.
LENGTH: Short : 31 linesby CNB