• Oxitec

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2014

  Oxitec develops genetically modified mosquitoes intended to reduce or eliminate populations of disease vectors. The company has raised and reared Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which the article states transmit malaria, Zika and dengue. Oxitec inserts a gene into male mosquitoes that is inherited by females, causing the next generation of females to die before they begin biting and feeding on blood. The firm reports the genetic modification can eradicate mosquito populations within ten generations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $4.1M investment will support Oxitec's work to create malarial Anopheles mosquitoes for trials planned at the end of 2020. Oxitec previously received £3.7M from the Gates Foundation in 2010. Oxitec develops a platform that produces a unique strain of the dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti) containing sterility and marker genes. The company releases engineered male mosquitoes that do not bite; when they mate with wild females the resulting offspring inherit the additional genes and die before reaching adulthood. The inherited marker is visible under a specific wavelength of light, enabling simple programme monitoring in the field. Oxitec recently received the first approval for its technology to control dengue mosquitoes from Brazil’s National Technical Commission for Biosecurity (CTNBio) in April. The company completed a £6.1m ($10.2m) funding round to establish commercial production facilities and enable rollout of dengue mosquito control programmes, initially in Brazil. The funds will also support local recruitment and training and expansion into additional countries impacted by dengue fever; Oxitec was established in 2002 as a University of Oxford spin-out and is led by CEO Hadyn Parry. Oxitec develops genetically engineered 'sterile' male insects as a method to suppress populations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and other pest species. Its core product is the Oxitec Control Programme, designed to reduce dengue-mosquito populations in hard-hit communities. The company intends to use newly raised capital to conduct further trials of the Control Programme. Oxitec leverages advanced genetics to extend the principle of sterility-based suppression to a broader range of insect species and to overcome cost-efficacy hurdles. The technology targets public-health and agricultural threats driven by insect vectors. Oxitec is led by CEO Hadyn Parry and is based in Oxford, UK.

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