Brazil's National Technical Commission of Biosafety (CTNBio) has given the commercial approval to TMG Tropical Melhoramento & Genética and Verdeca for HB4® drought tolerant transgenic soybeans. The approval allows the planting and harvesting of HB4 soybean varieties in Brazil.

Besides the HB4 trait, the event stack with an herbicide tolerance trait was also approved. CTNBio's approval is followed by a 30-day public comment period, before the definitive approval document is produced. The commercial launch of the HB4 trait in Brazil is contingent upon approvals by the main soybean grain importing countries, which are ongoing, and by a variety of registration processes.

The HB4 trait has already been approved in Argentina and by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Regulatory submissions are currently under consideration by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as in China, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Uruguay.

For more details, read the news release from TMG (in Portuguese), or read the article in AgroPages.