BASF files novel PPO herbicide to tackle resistant grass weeds

Replexor Active targets a gap in weed control that has narrowed farmers' options as herbicide resistance spreads globally.

By Disrupts Editorial Team Sat, 15 August 2026

A robotic arm operates within a brightly lit clear enclosure, part of a cleanroom production line with manufacturing machinery and blurry personnel in blue cleanroom suits in the background.

BASF Agricultural Solutions has begun submitting regulatory dossiers for Replexor Active (fendioxypyracil), a novel herbicide active ingredient it says extends the protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) class into territory most existing chemistries cannot reach. First filings landed in Brazil and Australia in July 2026; submissions in the United States and Argentina are planned for 2027, with first commercial introductions targeted around 2030.

The registration launch is a significant pipeline milestone for the German chemicals giant, which reported agricultural-solutions sales of €9.6 billion in 2025 against an R&D spend of €990 million. BASF says Replexor Active could, at peak adoption, support weed management programmes covering more than 50 million hectares globally, though the company acknowledges that figure is contingent on regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions.

Filling a structural gap in resistance management

PPO herbicides have underpinned resistance management in broadleaf crops for more than five decades, but almost all existing molecules in the class work primarily against broadleaf weeds. Replexor Active is positioned as the first PPO herbicide with meaningful activity on key annual grasses, including Eleusine indica, Echinochloa spp., and Setaria spp. These species are increasingly problematic in soybean, corn and cotton systems precisely because so few registered options remain effective against them.

"Growers have had very few new tools for resistant grasses in recent years," said Maximilian Becker, a member of the Management Board of BASF Agricultural Solutions. "Replexor Active addresses that directly and fits into the resistance management programs growers are already building with our PPO portfolio."

The molecule also enables no-till farming practices, which matters for soil health and erosion reduction, and is effective at low use rates per hectare. Both attributes sit well with the direction of travel in sustainable agriculture, where regulators are simultaneously tightening active-ingredient approval criteria and expecting growers to reduce their chemical footprint.

Convergence of regulatory pressure, resistance biology and capital

The Replexor Active registration marks a convergence of several slow-moving forces that are now accelerating simultaneously. Herbicide resistance is expanding faster than new active ingredients can be brought to market; the European regulatory environment has progressively retired older chemistries; and climate-driven shifts in growing geographies are spreading resistant weed biotypes into new territories.

For investors tracking the crop-protection sector, BASF's move signals that the post-patent-cliff malaise in agrochemical pipelines is not uniform. The company is one of a small cluster of incumbents, alongside Syngenta, Corteva and FMC, that can still sustain the decade-long R&D cycle required to bring a genuinely novel mode of action to registration. Smaller agri-biotech startups are increasingly focused on biological alternatives, but the grasses-plus-broadleaf resistance problem at field scale still favours the balance sheet of a major integrated chemistry house.

The choice to file first in Brazil and Australia is strategically telling. Brazil is the world's largest soybean producer and arguably the most commercially important single market for herbicide innovation, while Australia's dryland-farming systems are among the most resistant-weed-challenged globally. These are not regulatory-speed plays; they are market-signal plays, indicating where BASF expects the earliest commercial return. The subsequent US and Argentina filings in 2027 will determine whether Replexor Active can anchor large-scale resistance management programmes in the North American corn belt and the Argentine Pampas, both of which are under sustained pressure from glyphosate-resistant biotypes.

Melanie Bausen-Wiens, responsible for technology on the BASF Agricultural Solutions board, pointed to a further competitive dimension: PPO herbicide-tolerant crop traits in development that would give growers greater scheduling flexibility when deploying Replexor Active. If those trait programmes advance in parallel with the registration timeline, BASF could integrate Replexor Active into a herbicide-plus-trait system, the model that has defined market leadership in crop protection since the Roundup Ready era.