Oxitec do Brasil Receives Prestigious Award for Innovation and Impact
The honour recognises company’s results and contribution to the community
PIRACICABA, Brazil, October, 10th, 2017 – Oxitec do Brasil, a subsidiary of Oxitec Ltd, UK, has been presented with the Empreendetec Award in the enterprise category recognizing the results of Oxitec’s technology and its contribution to the Piracicaba community and Brazil. The awarding body, ESALQTec from Esalq/USP (Luiz de Queiroz Agriculture College from University of São Paulo), is a technological incubator that brings together companies with innovative projects in the areas of agriculture, biology and information technology.
“The Empreendetec Award recognises innovative companies. The choice of Oxitec is based on its results with the Friendly™ Aedes program, the mosquito that fights the vector of many diseases causing harm and death, as well as high direct and indirect costs,” say Sérgio Marcus Barbosa, executive manager of ESALQTec.
According to Barbosa, the criteria considered by the award committee include technology, entrepreneurship, science, and innovation as a contribution to society. “Oxitec brings all of these for the technological benefit to society and people’s lives. Moreover, the enterprise has been investing significantly in Brazil to generate jobs in Piracicaba.”
To Jorge Espanha, Oxitec do Brasil director-general, the partnership with ESALQTec is “very important” because the technological incubator is a support centre for biotech and agribusiness enterprises, assisting in their development. “Furthermore, ESALQTec has support from the biggest agriculture college in the country and one of the top-ranking universities in the world”, says Espanha.
”The award confirms Oxitec’s broader impact, not just in helping to combat the mosquito that transmits dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika, and other diseases, but via continued investment, employment, and partnerships in Piracicaba and throughout Brazil,” said Espanha. “Our technology has had a positive impact on the Piracicaba community, where it has been deployed since 2015, and we look forward to furthering our contributions throughout the country. We are proud of this recognition of the pioneering work of our employees, who develop and execute this work in Brazil. With this award, we humbly join the growing community of organisations using biotechnology to support community development.”
Prize
In its eighth edition, the Empreendetec Award will be delivered on Tuesday, October 10th, at 7 pm, in the Technologic Park amphitheatre. In addition to Oxitec do Brasil, in the enterprise category, José Augusto Tomé, co-founder of AdTech Coworking and the AgTech Garage, will receive the prize in the professional category.
The prize is part of the official program of the 60th Luiz de Queiroz Week and the Esalqshow (a Technological Innovation Fair for Sustainable Agribusiness). The evening will include the graduation of Colly Química Indústria e Comércio Ltda and Maxit Tecnologia da Informação Eireli Me from the technological incubator.
The evening will also honour the 250 years of the Piracicaba municipality; 50 years of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Piracicaba (IHGP) and Fumep (Municipal Education Foundation of Piracicaba), as well as 70 years of Afocapi (Piracicaba Sugar Cane Suppliers Association).
How Friendly™ Aedes works
Oxitec has been working in Aedes aegypti control for over a decade and pioneered the use of a biological method to suppress wild populations of this dangerous mosquito species through the release of Friendly™ Aedes males, which do not bite and do not transmit diseases. When released, these males search for wild females to mate, and their offspring inherit a self-limiting gene that causes them to die before reaching adulthood. Friendly™ Aedes’ offspring also inherit a fluorescent marker that allows tracking and monitoring at a level never before achieved, making the assessment of effectiveness more accurate throughout the whole Friendly™ Aedes deployment program. Unlike other approaches, Friendly™ Aedes mosquitoes die along with their offspring, and therefore do not persist in the environment or leave any ecological footprint.
About Oxitec
Oxitec is a pioneer in using genetic engineering to control insect pests that spread disease and damage crops, and was founded in 2002 as a spinout from Oxford University (UK). Oxitec is a subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE: XON), which engineers biology to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Follow us on Twitter at @Oxitec, on Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations and projections about future events and generally relate to our plans, objectives and expectations for the development of our business. Although management believes that the plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual future results may be materially different from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed in this press release.
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