About Sparks™

Our Goal: Expanding Access to Wolbachia

Climate change is giving rise to a massive invasive pest threat to human sustainability on Earth, which is causing the spread of diseases like dengue. Up to 400 million people each year suffer from dengue, and the number of infections is growing due to rapid urbanisation and a rise in extreme weather events.

To help address this growing challenge, Oxitec has created Sparks™, a new platform to scale Wolbachia Replacement Technology (WRT) using the strength of Oxitec’s partnerships, and global operations.

Sparks™ will scale the deployment of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the naturally occurring bacteria, Wolbachia, which is proven to reduce Aedes aegypti mosquitoes’ ability to spread dengue and other viral diseases.

Sparks™ will be led by a cross-disciplinary team across five continents, and supported by world-class R&D facilities, manufacturing sites, and strong partnerships with industry leaders, research institutions, governments, and non-profits.

To improve access to WRT, and like many other public health interventions, Sparks™ will pursue a dual approach to market – serving both high-burden/low-income and high-burden/higher-income markets globally – to help drive costs down to the ranges recommended by the WHO for those governments and communities most in need while achieving sustainability financially to reduce the need for continued charitable funding, which is increasingly under pressure globally.

“Our new Sparks™ enterprise is a natural extension of Oxitec’s mission and platform, and we’re thrilled to be joining the global effort to increase access to this powerful technology while driving costs down. To achieve these twin aims, we’re building a sustainable, scalable enterprise model that will eliminate the need for continued charitable funding in perpetuity while giving governments and communities new options. We’re thankful for the scientific endeavours to date that have proven the effectiveness of this technology and we’re thrilled to have been given the support by the Gates Foundation to jump-start this critical effort.”

Oxitec CEO, Grey Frandsen

Sparks™ is focusing on three areas:

  1. The rapid and significant scale-up of supply of WRT to drive up supply and drive down costs;

  2. The establishment of a global distribution network to ensure scalable delivery to communities in need; and

  3. The development of new hybrid solutions, inclusive of suppress and replace interventions.

Sparks™ will complement Oxitec’s groundbreaking mosquito solution, Friendly™ Aedes aegypti, which is the leading dengue vector suppression solution that effectively reduces disease-spreading mosquito populations. Friendly™ Aedes aegypti is the first self-limiting solution in the world to be commercialized at scale where in Brazil it is being manufactured and distributed by more than 20 professional distribution partners, and is serving cities, large-scale employers, public spaces, transport hubs, schools, and a range of other end users across the country.

About Wolbachia Replacement Technology 

Known as Wolbachia Replacement Technology (WRT), this approach is safe, sustainable, has been proven around the world in multiple field trials and pilot deployments.

Wolbachia Replacement Technology works by replacing wild Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with ones that carry Wolbachia. This is done by regularly releasing Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes into the wild, where they then breed with wild mosquitoes.

Now, with the science proven and in response to a call from the World Health Organization for new manufacturers to join the effort, it is ready for advancement to commercial-grade scale-up to drive costs down and increase supply in line with the rising global dengue burden.