Hi Peter,

I sympathise with your position in France. We've found the exact same
situation in many countries, including France where quite a bit of our
research is done. On the one hand the "Authorities" set stringent rules for
registering a treatment - so stringent and expensive that very few firms can
get their product through to the user and on the other hand you have what
you described perfectly - there is quite widespread disregard of the rules
even BY THE AUTHORITIES for this very legislation.

We are asked constantly why we don't have the next product(s) out yet.
Registration alone (ignoring product development time) can take 3 years.
Vita is now just coming to the point where we have registrations of new
products pending in many countries. Our APIGUARD thymol gel is about to be
widely registered so you can expect to see that in France this year.
APIGUARD is  used for the control of mites in honeybee colonies and will be
7 years in reaching the market from the initial development stages. Believe
it or not, that is fast.

Our pheromone blend, PHEROVAR which interupts varroa reproduction is about
18 months out of line. It's a complicated blend and what we thought was the
correct constituency last year turned out to be not quite so. A question of
isomerism. We used the wrong isomer of three. The blend is known but we have
to go through all the dosage, efficacy and bee tox tests again, hence the
delay. But it will come and news of it will be posted in the bee press
nearer the time.


Max

Dr Max Watkins
Vita (Europe) Limited
Brook House, Alencon Link
Basingstoke, Hants RG21 7RD  UK

Tel.   +44 (0) 1256 473177
Fax   +44 (0) 1256 473179

http://www.vita.demon.co.uk