In a discussion with Forecasting Healthy Futures, Oxitec's CEO Grey Frandsen discusses the company’s latest milestone: breaking ground on the world’s largest Wolbachia mosquito facility. As part of Oxitec’s Sparks™ platform, this facility will accelerate the global scale-up of Wolbachia replacement technology, a proven, sustainable method of limiting mosquitoes’ ability to transmit dengue.
Can you tell us about dengue and why Oxitec is working to address this issue specifically?
FRANDSEN: The world is experiencing a dengue crisis. Last year, the World Health Organization highlighted that cases were the highest on record, most likely in the hundreds of millions. Climate change is driving the spread of invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes into new territories, and existing tools are failing to keep pace – innovative, climate-resilient, sustainable solutions are urgently needed, at scale, to mitigate the worsening effects of climate change on the spread of dengue.
In forging a path for new mosquito technologies to combat Aedes aegypti, Oxitec has led the way in developing and scaling good mosquitoes to fight disease-spreading mosquitoes. With two decades of innovation, pilots and regulatory approvals, we’re now scaling up two technologies to meet this growing challenge: Friendly™ mosquitoes to suppress Aedes aegypti, and Sparks™ Wolbachia mosquitoes to block dengue transmission.
Oxitec’s Friendly™ technology is highly targeted and effective in reducing biting and disease transfer of mosquitoes in urban environments, serving both public and private customers. Sparks™ Wolbachia mosquitoes will complement this solution, providing an area-wide intervention for governments.
Oxitec just announced it broke ground on the world’s largest Wolbachia mosquito facility in Brazil. Can you tell us more about the facility and why this is significant?
FRANDSEN: Oxitec already operates the world’s biggest mosquito factory, supplying Friendly™ Aedes technology – the world’s first commercially scaled mosquito-base suppression technology – to communities, businesses, schools, hospitals and other customers across Brazil seeking effective mosquito-control.
Now, we’re leveraging our proven infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and implementation systems into building Brazil’s largest Wolbachia production facility. Wolbachia is already proven to reduce dengue transmission in communities – we’re excited to be playing our part in helping make this solution available to a larger number of communities.
What makes this significant is scale. With this facility, we’ll be able to protect up to 100 million people a year from dengue—just from this one site. And we’re building it in Brazil, a country on the front line of the global dengue crisis, so we can deliver this technology to the communities that need it most, in Brazil and globally, leveraging Oxitec’s global distribution network.
What is Wolbachia Replacement Technology? Is it safe?
Wolbachia Replacement Technology – or WRT – is a natural, safe and proven method that uses mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium to reduce the spread of dengue. When these mosquitoes are released into a community, Wolbachia spreads through the mosquito population and blocks the viruses they carry. Over time, this reduces the mosquitoes' ability to transmit disease.
It’s been tested extensively, including in a landmark trial in Indonesia that showed a 77% reduction in dengue cases and an 86% drop in hospitalizations. Regulatory bodies worldwide have reviewed it, and it’s been safely used in many countries.
What’s your hope with scaling WRT?
FRANDSEN: Ultimately, our mission is to protect one billion people from dengue. The science is there. Now the challenge is scale. That’s what the Sparks™ platform aims to achieve – taking a proven technology and building the infrastructure and partnerships to deliver it affordably, at speed, and at scale. Our aim is that, by scaling Wolbachia, we can deliver widespread, lasting impact to communities most vulnerable to dengue, helping address an urgent public health challenge.
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