Irish agrochemicals group wins €3m damages over German licensing delays

Irish agrochemicals company Life Scientific is awaiting a payout of €3 million in damages from the German government, after winning a series of legal cases there against regulators it had accused of unfairly delaying licences for its products.

Life Scientific, which makes generic versions of major branded agricultural pesticides, has won five such cases since 2016 over delays against regulators, including the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL), which is responsible for authorising pesticides in Germany, and the country’s environmental agency, UBA.

In each case, it accused German regulators of incorrectly applying European Union licensing rules, making it harder for it to enter the market. It subsequently won damages from the government in a German civil court, and is awaiting a report from a court auditor to confirm the €3 million award.

Nicola Mitchell, the Dublin-headquartered company's founder and chief executive, says it has a further 22 cases over licensing delays ongoing in Germany, which is home to some of the largest pesticide manufacturers globally, including Bayer Crop Science and BASF.

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“It isn’t the money I want, really. It is justice,” said Ms Mitchell. The Irish company has spent more than €1 million in legal fees in its fights against German regulators.

“We now have a portfolio of about 10 products licensed there, so we are already seeing behavioural change [from regulators] after our cases. That is really the way in which I define us as winning in Germany,” she said.

“We used to face so many walls when trying to launch products there, and where you see walls, you see value.”

‘High margin business’

Ms Mitchell said Life Scientific now has annual sales in Germany of close to €10 million, which she said is “high margin business”.

Life Scientific, which employs 70 staff in Dublin including 35 scientists, specialises in “reverse engineering” the formulas for popular agricultural pesticides produced by the big global manufacturers.

It then sells them as generic products to farming co-operatives once the multinationals’ brands come off patent, similar to how generic drugs companies operate in the pharmaceuticals industry. It partners with factories in China to produce the pesticides.

Ms Mitchell, who is the partner of Galway entrepreneur and Business Post newspaper proprietor Enda O’Coineen, has ambitious plans to expand the company over the next five years, from annual sales of about €60 million to €250 million, targeting growth in south America, eastern Europe and the US.

“I expect that our sales will grow to about €80 million this year,” said Ms Mitchell, who is a finalist in this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

Paraguay

The Cork businesswoman founded the company in 1995 and it began growing strongly in 2012, she said. In 2015, she sold a 50 per cent stake in the business to the huge French farming co-op, InVivo. France is one of its major markets, along with Spain, the UK and Germany.

Life Scientific is targeting expansion in the small south American market of Paraguay, where, along with her local business partner, agricultural magnate Carlo Sama, Ms Mitchell says she recently met the country's president, Maria Abdo Benitez.

She says the aim is to grow sales in Paraguay to about €20 million over the next three years, which will provide the company with a “gateway” to the massive agricultural pesticides market of Brazil. Life Scientific is also seeking authorisation for its products in the US and across eastern Europe.

“We can get to sales of €250 million in five years, and that will get us a valuation of €1 billion,” she claims.