More Information on the Human Safety Profile of Oxitec’s Friendly™ Mosquitoes​

Oxitec’s Friendly™ technology has been found to be safe for people, animals and the environment by national regulators. These findings followed detailed reviews by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Technology Commission for Biosafety in Brazil (see more information here, and here) and other governments and independent bodies, of Oxitec’s dossiers of scientific data supporting the safety of Friendly™ technology. In addition, peer-reviewed publications over the last decade have also confirmed the technology’s safety.​

These comprehensive assessments included exhaustive studies showing that predators suffer no harm feeding on Friendly™ insects or the two proteins expressed from the introduced genes, and that reducing the target pest will not harm local ecology. Reviews also included verification by 10 independent allergy experts in the U.S. and worldwide that the two introduced proteins – tTAV and DsRed2 – are not allergenic. These global experts form the scientific review panels of the two major international allergen research databases AllergenOnline and COMPARE, which regulators rely on as part of their risk assessment process. The panels deliberate over any potential allergenicity concerns and for Oxitec’s two additional proteins, they undertook a review and all 10 independent experts reached the conclusion that they are non-allergenic to humans.*​

*In 2018, these panels included the wider family of “GFP-like protein variants” to their respective databases, but all such sequences were subsequently removed after both of the expert panels evaluated the science and independently concluded that there was no justification for classifying this family of proteins as either likely or putative allergens. Letters from both AllergenOnline and COMPARE panels explaining their respective decisions to remove the GFP-like protein Akane from the databases are publicly available here, and here. ​​

In summary, Oxitec’s technology has been confirmed as safe to humans, animals and the environment. The U.S. EPA’s Human Health and Environmental Risk Assessment for OX5034 Aedes aegypti highlights the depth and breadth of the evaluation it undertook, and their affirmation of safety.