Singapore: Starpharma Holdings and Makhteshim Agan Group announced a collaboration program that will see Starpharma's Priostar dendrimer technology applied to novel crop protection formulations across Makhteshim Agan's extensive product portfolio.

Makhteshim Agan is the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of branded off-patent crop and non-crop protection products. Makhteshim Agan serves farmers in 120 countries and operates in Australia as Farmoz.

The collaboration program leverages Makhteshim Agan's broad product portfolio and extensive formulation capabilities alongside Starpharma's Priostar dendrimer technology. The program includes the development of new formulations of a number of active ingredients, including three actives with total market sales for 2011, each exceeding $400 million globally. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed due to commercial confidentiality restrictions.

"Through this collaboration Starpharma has the opportunity to further extend the reach of its dendrimer technology in agrochemicals. This partnership which involves multiple products in major global markets represents an exciting and valuable commercial opportunity for our Priostar dendrimers," said Dr Jackie Fairley, CEO, Starpharma. "We look forward to working closely with Makhteshim Agan to produce exciting new crop protection products."

"Makhteshim Agan strives to offer differentiated solutions to address growers' needs, based on innovation, quality and value," said Mr Sami Shabtai, head of Innovative Development, Makhteshim Agan. "We actively seek out exciting technologies that can complement our in-house capabilities and market understanding to deliver effective and simple crop protection solutions."