Pesticide Registration in a Pandemic — A Conversation with Sheryl Dolan

This week I sat down with Sheryl Lindros Dolan, Senior Regulatory Consultant at B&C and its consulting affiliate, The Acta Group.  Sheryl is on the front line of pesticide registration and engages in a remarkably diverse range of pesticides and pesticide devices.  Sheryl is particularly gifted at charting regulatory strategies for new and novel pesticide innovations and other agricultural chemical products like biostimulants, biopesticides, and other chemical products.  Sheryl’s training as a scientist and a lawyer is invaluable in guiding clients to obtaining their regulatory approvals swiftly and efficiently. Our conversation covers a broad range of topics beginning with a check-in with how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs is faring under our now not-so-new pandemic-focused times.  We discuss how EPA is addressing the greatly increased number of pesticide registration applications in response to the COVID-19 virus, the submission of emergency exemption applications under FIFRA Section 18, and how to manage client expectations, especially those harbored by innovators who believe their products will help protect against the virus and thus have a sense of urgency that is challenging to align with even accelerated government approval time lines. We also discuss EPA’s compliance advisory for pesticide devices making coronavirus claims and EPA’s continuing efforts to prevent the marketing of bogus products that are unregistered and thus illegal.  Sheryl’s expertise and broad experience in these areas make for a great conversation. ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.