FMC Corporation (FMC), a global agricultural sciences company, provides farmers innovative solutions that increase the productivity and resilience of their land.
FMC’s innovative crop protection solutions help growers produce food, feed, fiber, and fuel for an expanding world population while adapting to a changing environment. FMC is committed to discovering new insecticide, herbicide, and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations, and pioneering technologies that are consistently bet...
FMC Corporation (FMC), a global agricultural sciences company, provides farmers innovative solutions that increase the productivity and resilience of their land.
FMC’s innovative crop protection solutions help growers produce food, feed, fiber, and fuel for an expanding world population while adapting to a changing environment. FMC is committed to discovering new insecticide, herbicide, and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations, and pioneering technologies that are consistently better for the planet.
Strategy
The company is a tier-one leader and the fifth largest global innovator in the agrochemicals/crop protection market. The company’s strong competitive position is driven by its technology and innovation, as well as its geographic balance and crop diversity.
FMC is guided by the company’s strategic plan, which aims to transform its relationship with growers to become a trusted source for technical expertise and innovative solutions, to deliver superior growth and returns to its stakeholders, and to lead the crop protection industry in safety, talent, sustainability, and innovation. FMC expects to deliver on its growth ambitions by accelerating development and commercialization of its pipeline, driving profitability and competitiveness of its diamides brands and core synthetic portfolio, and growing the leading plant health business driven by its pheromones platform. To enable its growth and help achieve its ambitions, FMC is implementing strategies to be a trusted advisor to the grower through dedicated technical personnel and events, expanded precision technologies, and other digital and communication tools.
FMC’s strategy also includes a focus on driving a fit-for-purpose and resilient supply network. FMC remains committed to leading the industry in safety, inclusion, and sustainability.
Acquisitions and Divestitures
On November 1, 2024, the company completed the sale of the non-core Global Specialty Solutions (‘GSS’) business to Environmental Science US, LLC d/b/a Envu (‘Envu’).
Products and Uses
Insecticides: This is used in the protection of crops, including soybean, corn, fruits, and vegetables, cotton, sugarcane, rice, and cereals, from insects and for non-agricultural applications, including pest control for home, garden, and other specialty markets.
Herbicides: This is used in the protection of crops, including cotton, sugarcane, rice, corn, soybeans, cereals, fruits, and vegetables from weed growth and for non-agricultural applications, including turf and roadsides.
Fungicides: This is used in the protection of crops, including cereals, fruits, and vegetables from fungal disease.
Plant Health: This is used in the protection of crops, including soybean, corn, fruits, and vegetables, cotton, sugarcane, rice, and cereals, from insects and diseases, and enhancement of yields.
Products and Markets
The company’s portfolio consists of three major pesticide categories: insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The majority of the company’s product lines consist of insecticides and herbicides, and it has a growing portfolio of fungicides mainly used in high-value crop segments. The company’s insecticides are used to control a wide spectrum of pests, while its herbicide portfolio primarily targets a large variety of difficult-to-control weeds. In addition, it is also investing substantially in its Plant Health program, which includes biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products. Biological technologies offer excellent sustainability profiles and serve as strong complements to its synthetic products. The company’s biologicals feature attributes that exceed the competition, such as high stability, long shelf life, low use rates, and compatibility with other chemistries.
The company has its own sales and marketing organizations and accesses the market through a combination of distributors, retailers, and co-ops in all four regions. In addition, it sells directly to large growers in select countries, such as Brazil. Through these and other alliances, along with its own targeted marketing efforts, access to novel technologies, and its innovation initiatives, the company expects to maintain and enhance its access in key agricultural and non-crop markets and develop new products that will help it continue to compete effectively.
Growth
The company is among the leading agrochemical producers in the world. Several products from the company’s portfolio are based on proprietary active ingredients with a range of intellectual property protections, which should position it to grow well above market patterns. The company’s complementary technologies combine improved formulation capabilities and a broader innovation pipeline, resulting in new and differentiated products. It continues to take advantage of enhanced market access positions and an expanded portfolio to deliver near-term growth.
The company’s growth strategy is driven by obtaining new and improved uses for existing product lines and developing, acquiring, accessing, marketing, distributing, and/or selling complementary chemistries, biologicals, and related technologies to strengthen its product portfolio and its capabilities to effectively service its target markets and customers.
The company’s growth efforts focus on developing environmentally compatible and sustainable solutions that can effectively increase farmers’ yields and provide alternatives to products that may be prone to resistance. The company is committed to providing unique, differentiated products to its customers by acquiring and further developing technologies, as well as investing in innovation to extend product life cycles, introduce new modes of action, and enter new market segments. The company’s external growth efforts include product acquisitions, in-licensing of chemistries and technologies, and alliances that bolster its market access, complement its existing product portfolio, or provide entry into adjacent spaces. It has entered into a range of development and distribution agreements with other companies that provide access to new technologies and products, which it can subsequently commercialize.
In FMC Precision Agriculture, the company is broadening its award-winning Arc farm intelligence platform, a proprietary mobile solution that helps farmers better understand and manage pest pressure through predictive modeling based on real-time and historical data, entomological models, hyper-local weather information, and in-field sensors. Arc farm intelligence, which is now available in over 25 countries across 20 million acres, allows growers to address pest pressure more efficiently, manage infestations before they escalate, and target applications in a more sustainable manner.
The company’s venture capital arm, FMC Ventures, continued to build its portfolio in 2024 with new collaborations and strategic investments in start-ups and early-stage companies working on new or disruptive technologies. These engagements, which support or augment its internal capabilities, span several important technology segments, including robotics, drone technology, Ag-FinTech, pathogen detection, soil health, peptides, and pheromones.
Core Portfolio Strategy
The company’s core portfolio includes one of its two diamide-class molecules – Rynaxypyr (chlorantraniliprole) active, the world’s leading insect control technology – with annual revenues of approximately $1.0 billion in 2024. The core portfolio also includes its long-standing synthetic herbicides and insecticides, which continue to deliver strong performance across a variety of crops around the world. The company’s current diamide pipeline contains approximately eleven new products containing Rynaxypyr active to be launched this decade, and it expects Rynaxypyr active to continue a steady growth trajectory notwithstanding the expiration of composition of matter patents covering Rynaxypyr active in certain countries, which started in late 2022. The company’s growth strategy for Rynaxypyr active includes the introduction of novel formulations and mixture products, as well as lower-cost solo formulations. The first of these Rynaxypyr active-containing products, under the trademarks Elevest, Vantacor, and Altacor eVo, were launched in the US and other countries, including Canada and Australia, starting in late 2020, and will be launched in additional countries in 2025 onward. In 2023, the Premio Star insect control formulation was launched in Brazil, and launches in other Latin American countries will start in 2025. The implementation of its lower-cost diamide manufacturing strategy will also support its ability to compete with expected generic competitors.
Growth Portfolio Strategy
FMC’s growth portfolio includes products under patent or data protection in important markets and/or providing novel modes of action. The pipeline is highly valuable because it is biased toward new modes of action. The current R&D pipeline features over 20 new active areas in discovery and 18 new active ingredients in development.
The growth portfolio includes the company’s second diamide-class molecule, Cyazypyr active (cyantraniliprole), which supports a portfolio of products that generated revenues of approximately $0.5 billion in 2024. The Cyazypyr product portfolio continues to be protected by patents and data protection for key global markets. Cyazypyr active-containing brands, under the trademarks Verimark, Benevia, and Exirel, were launched in certain southern European countries starting in 2023. The company’s current diamide pipeline contains approximately nine new products containing Cyazypyr active expected to be launched this decade, and it continues to explore further innovations based on this diamide chemistry. The company anticipates strong growth of Cyazypyr active due to its patent portfolio, complex manufacturing profile, and regulatory data protection in key markets. Additionally, it is developing novel formulations containing Cyazypyr active, which are intended to expand the spectrum of pest control and provide growers with lower cost in use. The company also expects that the implementation of its lower-cost diamide manufacturing strategy will allow for continued competitiveness of Cyazypyr active as generic entry begins following patent and data protection expiry.
The company’s growth portfolio also includes herbicide pipeline products featuring three molecules - Dodhylex active, Isoflex active, and rimisoxafen. Isoflex active offers a new mode of action against weeds in cereals. The company has launched herbicide brands powered by Isoflex active for cereals in Australia, Argentina, China, India, and Pakistan. In Brazil, it has launched for use in cotton and rice and will expand into wheat. The company anticipates launching other herbicide brands powered by Isoflex active in Chile and Uruguay during 2025 and expects to significantly expand sales of these products to other parts of its EMEA and NA regions over the next five years.
Dodhylex active is the first active ingredient in the HRAC/WSSA Group 28 and the first new herbicide with a novel mode of action in the industry in over three decades. This new mode of action herbicide was discovered at the FMC Stine Research Center and is a testament to FMC's commitment to innovation and its disciplined approach to advancing the most promising new molecules. The company is working towards registering Dodhylex active for use in all major rice-growing countries across the globe and other additional crops. Dodhylex active is not currently registered and is not available for sale in any country. The company has, however, received a conditional registration for Dodhylex active in the Philippines and anticipates first sales later in 2025. The registration dossier for Dodhylex active and products containing Dodhylex active were submitted for review in India, Brazil, the United States, Colombia, South Korea, Peru, Taiwan, Japan, and Malaysia.
Rimisoxafen is a new dual mode of action herbicide for resistant broadleaf weeds, including Palmer amaranth, a fast-growing and harmful weed that has developed resistance to most herbicides on the market. Rimisoxafen provides excellent control of key Amaranthus species (Palmer, waterhemp, redroot pigweed) with outstanding residual performance. Rimisoxafen is in the development phase of the company’s pipeline, and it is conducting regulatory studies at this time.
The company’s fungicide pipeline portfolio includes fluindapyr. Fluindapyr controls a variety of key diseases in row and specialty crops around the world. Fluindapyr formulations are registered in the U.S., Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, and Argentina. Key crops include soybeans, corn, cotton, cereals, oilseed rape, fruits & vegetables, tree nuts, and peanuts. Onsuva fungicide is available in Argentina and Brazil to prevent and control diseases affecting soybean, corn, and peanut crops. Adastrio fungicide is registered in the U.S. for use in corn, grain sorghum, wheat, triticale, and barley against anthracnose leaf blight, common rust, gray leaf spot, Northern corn leaf blight, and Southern rust.
Pipeline Growth Strategy
The company owns and licenses a significant number of U.S. and foreign patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property that are cumulatively important to its business. In addition, the company seeks to license its proprietary technologies through partnering arrangements that effectively allow it to capitalize on its intellectual property. The FMC intellectual property estate provides it with a significant competitive advantage, which it seeks to expand and renew on a continual basis. The company manages its technology investment to discover and develop new active ingredients and biological products, as well as to continue to improve manufacturing processes and existing active ingredients through new formulations, mixtures, or other concepts. FMC’s technology innovation processes capture those innovations and protect them through the most appropriate form of intellectual property rights. The company also in-licenses certain active ingredients and other technologies under patents held by third parties and has granted licenses to certain of its patents to third parties.
The company’s patents cover many aspects of its business, including its chemical and biological active ingredients, intermediate chemicals, manufacturing processes to produce such active ingredients or intermediates, formulations, and product uses, as well as many aspects of its research and development activities that support the FMC new product pipeline. Patents are granted by individual jurisdictions, and the duration of the company’s patents depends on their respective jurisdictions and payment of annuities.
As of December 31, 2024, the company owned a total of approximately 170 active granted U.S. patents and 2,531 active granted foreign patents (including Supplemental Patent Certificates); it also has approximately 1,863 patent applications pending globally.
The company actively monitors and manages its patents and trademarks to maintain its rights in these assets and strategically acts when its intellectual property rights are being infringed. Since 2022, continuing through 2024, the company initiated proceedings to enforce several of its patents and trademarks against generic producers and infringers, resulting in multiple favorable judgments and settlements in several countries, including in the United States, India, and China. Patent challenges in response to enforcement efforts are expected as an ordinary defense tactic in patent enforcement cases and have been raised in several of the company’s enforcement cases to date; the company intends to defend vigorously any patents that are challenged.
While the invalidity or loss of any particular patent, trademark, or license after appeal would be an unlikely possibility, the company’s patent and trademark estate related to its diamide insect control products based on Rynaxypyr and Cyazypyr active ingredients, in the aggregate, are of material importance to its operations. The composition of matter patent that covers chlorantraniliprole (also known as Rynaxypyr active) expired in a number of countries in August 2022; this patent protection for composition will end in 2027 across all geographies. The composition of matter patent that covers cyantraniliprole (also known as Cyazypyr active) expired in a number of countries starting in January 2024; this patent will continue to remain in force in other countries throughout the world, expiring on a country-by-country basis at various dates through January 2029.
In June 2024, FMC initiated a lawsuit against Sharda USA LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) for infringing two U.S. patents directed to insecticidal compositions containing the combination of bifenthrin and zeta-cypermethrin. FMC requested a preliminary injunction be granted preventing Sharda from selling its generic WINNER product in the U.S. and causing damage to the market for FMC’s HERO insecticide. In August 2024, FMC successfully obtained a preliminary injunction in the form of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The TRO is currently being appealed.
FMC filed a patent infringement case against Albaugh in the U.S. District Court (Iowa), based on public information disclosed in Albaugh’s EPA dossier. In the lawsuit, FMC alleged that Albaugh imported, made, or used products containing chlorantraniliprole made in violation of FMC’s U.S. patent rights protecting FMC’s processes for manufacturing chlorantraniliprole. In November 2024, FMC and Albaugh reached an agreement to resolve the case. As part of that agreement, Albaugh has agreed to pay FMC for a license to FMC’s patented technology used in the manufacture of chlorantraniliprole for agricultural uses in the United States. The specific terms of the agreement are confidential.
In December 2024, Atticus LLC filed a declaratory judgment case against FMC in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Atticus requested the Court declare that Atticus’s contemplated formulated products containing chlorantraniliprole do not infringe FMC’s patents directed to certain chlorantraniliprole product formulations. As of the date of the lawsuit, Atticus had not received EPA approval for the products at issue, but Atticus nevertheless alleged that approval was expected in the coming months. Atticus has not requested declaratory relief with respect to any of FMC’s patents covering processes to manufacture chlorantraniliprole. In early February 2025, FMC filed a motion to dismiss Atticus' complaint for failure to state a case or controversy.
Seasonality
The company’s products sold in the northern hemisphere (North America, Europe, and parts of Asia) serve seasonal agricultural markets from March through September, generally resulting in significant earnings in the first and second quarters, and to a lesser extent in the fourth quarter. Markets in the southern hemisphere (Latin America and parts of the Asia Pacific region, including Australia) are served from July through February, generally resulting in earnings in the third, fourth, and first quarters (year ended December 31, 2024).
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expenses were $278.0 million in 2024.
History
FMC Corporation was founded in 1883. The company was incorporated in 1928 under Delaware law.
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