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Oxitec Named Social Impact Investment of the Year
Oxford, UK, 7th July 2016 – Oxitec is delighted to have been named Social Impact Investment of the Year at the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) Angel Investment Awards 2016. The award recognises companies that aim to achieve significant social impact as a core part of their business model and acknowledges the key role of the investors who support them. Through its innovative biological approach to suppress harmful mosquitoes that spread disease and insect pests that damage crops, Oxitec is tackling enormous burdens placed on society in an environmentally-responsible manner.

Hadyn Parry, Chief Executive Officer of Oxitec, said, “It is an honour to have received this award from the UK Business Angels Association. Oxitec has benefitted greatly from investor support since our spinout from the University of Oxford in 2002. This backing has been instrumental in allowing us to develop new, environmentally-friendly methods of controlling insect pests that destroy crops and spread disease. I hope that the UKBAA awards encourage further investment in UK entrepreneurs.”

Oxitec was nominated for the award by Oxford Capital, its key long-term investor from the company’s spinout in 2002 until its acquisition by Intrexon Corporation in 2015.

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Dengue fever cases drop 91% in neighbourhood of Piracicaba, Brazil, where Oxitec’s Friendly™ Aedes were released
Epidemiological surveillance year ended in July 2016 with 12 cases reported for the disease in CECAP/Eldorado, compared to 133 in the year that preceded it
Oxford, UK, 14th July 2016 – Piracicaba’s Epidemiologic Surveillance service released new data this week which showed a 91% reduction of dengue fever cases registered in the CECAP/Eldorado district, an area of 5,000 residents, in the 2015/2016 dengue-year as compared to the 2014/2015 period. The incidence decreased to just 12 cases in 2015/2016, the first year in which Friendly™ Aedes, the genetically engineered mosquitoes that fight wild Aedes aegypti, were released there, versus 133 cases in the previous year. According to Epidemiologic Surveillance the rest of the municipality saw a 52% reduction in dengue fever incidence during the same period, from 3,487 cases in the 2014/2015 period to 1,676 cases in 2015/2016.

Additionally, the overall incidence rate in CECAP/Eldorado for the dengue-year 2014/2015 was 195% larger than the rate recorded for the rest of the municipality. In the dengue-year 2015/2016, the rate in CECAP/Eldorado was 45% lower than the rate in the rest of the municipality. The latest data roundup also reports zero cases of Zika and chikungunya in CECAP/Eldorado.

"Over the course of one year, we were able to bring the dengue fever incidence down by more than 50% in Piracicaba — the outcome of diligent work to eliminate still water spots, the breeding site of the mosquito," says the city’s Secretary of Health, Pedro Mello. "In CECAP/Eldorado, where we had the Friendly™ Aedes project, the reduction was extraordinary, going over 90%."