The 2025 Bernard Blum Award for biocontrol innovation has gone to Amoéba for its Axpera biofungicide.

Now in its tenth year, the Bernard Blum Awards are given to innovative biocontrol products. The chair of the judging panel David Cary said that Axpera created a new class of biocontrol and was a fitting winner for the 10th anniversary of the awards.

When receiving the gold award, Amoéba’s CEO Jean-Francois Doucet said the product has a dual mechanism – it blocks the germination of spores and stimulates the plant’s defence system. Doucet said the product was also compatible with copper and sulphur, conventional crop protection products.

The active substance is the lysate of Willaerta magna C2c Maky, a non-pathogenic amoeba found in the thermal waters of Aix-Les-Bains in France.

Amoéba gained its approval from the EU authorities for the active substance in June 2025, having submitted the dossier in mid-2022. Product market authorization is expected end 2025/ early 2026.

Doucet announced at the award ceremony that the product had just received approval in the USA.

The winner of the silver award was Valent BioScience for a broad spectrum nematicide, OutReach® SC, with the bronze going to IPL Biologicals for product Bellator, a multifunctional fungal and bacterial consortia against plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs).

Platypus won the award for ‘Best innovative product assisting the uptake of biocontrol’ with a gel-based delivery system.

The awards were made on the opening afternoon of Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting (ABIM) in Basel. ABIM is celebrating its 20th edition this year, and in a year of anniversaries, IBMA is holding a special event to mark its 30th anniversary.