Thursday, January 12th 2012
Oxitec statement in response to NGO allegations
A press release by Friends of the Earth, GeneWatch and Third World Network is being circulated today, and makes inaccurate public assertions about Oxitec’s motives, process and technology with the purpose of causing anxiety about the regulatory process.
Oxitec was founded with the purpose of finding better ways to combat diseases spread by insects rather than wholesale reliance on toxic and broad spectrum insecticides. Dengue is an intractable disease spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that affects more than 50 million people annually, mostly in dense urban environments. There is neither medication nor vaccine for this disease. Combating this mosquito relies largely on the use of larvicides added to water, or chemical insecticides sprayed or, in some cases, released as fogs by helicopters into whole neighbourhoods.
Over the last few decades this invasive mosquito has spread around the world and with it, the number of dengue cases has increased. In spite of the availability and use of insecticides, in the last 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold.
Oxitec’s approach is dramatically different in using genetically engineered ‘sterile’ males to search for females, resulting in non-viable offspring. Male mosquitoes do not bite or spread disease. This approach is in evaluation in a number of countries and potentially could become an important new tool in combating the mosquitoes that spread disease.
The institutions who determine the acceptability of any new public health technology are that nation’s regulators. By causing unfounded anxiety outside of the regulatory process, inexpert commentators risk consigning more than 50 million people to “breakbone” flu.
Oxitec is committed to full transparency in this process. This means sharing all research with these experts who are in a position where they regularly evaluate risk-benefit relationships.
The specific allegations are about a study that is already five years old and are extremely misleading. This was a study done in 2006-7 within the Institut Pasteur. The study was independent – we encourage such independent studies of our strains and technology. In a laboratory experiment they found a high level of survival of our mosquitoes in the apparent absence of tetracycline which was a strange result. We and they investigated and found the food they used for the mosquitoes was contaminated with tetracycline. While this was a clear case of contamination we have, of course, carried out dose-response studies to determine whether the tetracycline levels that can be found in the environment are likely to lead to survival of our mosquitoes. While tetracycline can be found in the environment in isolated areas it is not present in sufficient quantity to ensure survival of the mosquitoes.
These commentators further allege that Oxitec is “using poor regions in the Global South, such as cities in the Northeast region of Brazil, as its laboratory for genetically modified mosquitoes.” This insinuation that we are somehow targeting exploitable populations is also particularly irksome and patronising. Dengue is associated with tropical climate and about two fifths of the world population are at risk. NGOs risk undermining the chance of a real solution coming to cultures who have a real problem.
Further information
CEO Hadyn Parry
Tel: 01235 832393
Related posts:
- Oxitec MRCU Press Release
- TSB award for production technology
- SEEDA grant to tackle Asian tiger mosquito menace
- Oxitec appoints Hadyn Parry as CEO, effective from 3rd November 2008.