Oxitec’s pioneering insect sterilisation technique could eradicate dengue fever and malaria and cut crop damage worldwide. LSIPR spoke to CEO Hadyn Parry about the company’s development and its approach to protecting its inventions.
In the past 10 years, research teams have built biomechanical body parts, printed synthetic meat and mapped the human genome. They might even have discovered the legendary Higgs boson.
But despite these advancements in science and medicine, malaria, dengue fever and crop damage caused by insects remain a growing problem.
Dengue cases have increased 30-fold since the 1960s and malaria kills more than 500,000 each year, while agricultural pests cause famines around the world. Yet there are no approved vaccines for either disease and until now, the most popular method of pest control has been spraying harmful pesticides and keeping fingers crossed.
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Oxitec, patents, Hadyn Parry, mosquitos
