Bayer CropScience opened a new $20 million greenhouse in Research Triangle Park on Friday that will be used to conduct crop research on soy, corn and other crops.

Half of the 60,000-square-foot facility is greenhouse space. The building also has office and meeting space and growth chambers, lab space, and seed handling and storage areas. A 70,000 gallon underground water storage tank will harvest rainwater for plant irrigation.

“This investment in research and people will help drive our developments in producing crops even more efficiently and sustainably,” said Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, a Bayer AG management board member, in a statement.

Bayer CropScience has named Jim Blome president and CEO and head of crop protection for the North American region.

Blome takes over July 1. He succeeds Bill Buckner, who will retire at the end of the year.

Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of German conglomerate Bayer, produces insecticides and other crop protection products.

The company has 550 workers in the Triangle spread out among its North American headquarters in RTP plus Morrisville and Clayton.

Blome was most recently an executive vice present and chief operation officer with Valent U.S.A. Corporation, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Company,

He led the company's North American crop protection business and oversaw 270 employees.

Bayer CropScience plans to slash about 300 jobs as it closes or downsizes manufacturing facilities in West Virginia and Georgia.

The move is part of a shift by the company away from older insecticides to newer agriculture protection products. Bayer CropScience reached an agreement last summer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to phase out its Temik brand insecticide, making the production of its active ingredients unnecessary.

"The EPA did some new risk assessments, and they felt there was some concern" about Temik, said Bayer CropScience spokesman Jack Boyne. "We disagreed with some of their calculations, but we agreed to phase out the product."

Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Bayer, employs about 550 people at its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park, and at other local operations in Morrisville and Clayton.

A California real estate investment trust that focuses on lab space for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies has made its first purchase in the Triangle.

BioMed Realty Trust paid $17.5 million for a 62,000-square-foot building at 3500 Paramount Parkway in Morrisville that is now leased by Bayer CropScience.

The seller was Duke Realty, which built the lab space in 1999 for PPD, the Wilmington-based drug research company. Trimeris also occupied space in the building at one time.

Duke bought PPD out of its lease last year and back-filled the space with Bayer.
 

Syngenta Biotechnology has recruited a top researcher from a main rival to oversee its global biotech research efforts.

While just one man changing jobs, the news also reinforces this region's reputation as a major hub in the world's economy.

Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, who earned his college degrees in the Netherlands, will be based at Syngenta's North American biotech headquarters in Research Triangle Park. That's where the division of the Swiss drug maker employs more than 400 people. He'll also oversee research at a facility in Beijing.

He previously was head of bioscience research at Bayer CropScience, a division of the German conglomerate that also employs more than 400 at its North American headquarters in RTP.

Both Syngenta Biotechnology and Bayer CropScience are expanding as demand increases for pesticides and other crop protection products.

Bayer CropScience agreed to acquire Athenix, a Research Triangle Park biotechnology company developing developing genetically engineered corn and soybean.

Athenix was founded in 2001 and has about 65 employees. Terms of the deal announced this morning weren't disclosed. More details will likely be announced when the deal wins regulatory approval, probably in the next month.

A German group is upset with N.C. State's relationship with a subsidiary of the mammoth drug manufacturer Bayer.

The group, Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, is criticizing NCSU's decision to accept a $1 million endowment from Bayer CropScience to establish a new professorship in sustainable development.

Bayer CropScience's U.S. headquarters is in Research Triangle park, where it employs 450 people. In accepting the company's money, NCSU is helping Bayer CropScience "greenwash its image."

 A best-selling pesticide produced by Bayer was the target last year of a camplaint the group filed, alleging that the company knowingly polluted the environment.