US biotechnology start-up LivFul has secured a $1.5m investment to expand its work saving lives from malaria and other insect-borne diseases, and to support the company’s growth plans.
The company’s major markets are now opening up following the pandemic, with interest in Livful’s Enhanced Insect Repellent ramping up. Livful is currently focussing its business development initiatives on Australia, the United States, Uganda, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Livful’s STAYTEC technology enables the production of next-gen insect repellents. Using Merck’s active ingredient IR3535, LivFul created a repellent that defied expectations.
LivFul says it is focussed on communities in low- and middle-income countries where over 600 million people suffer from insect borne diseases every year. A child dies from malaria every two minutes and other diseases such as dengue fever to yellow fever, Lyme disease and Zika virus take a heavy toll on humanity, and often lead to a cycle of poverty.
Hogan Bassey, Chief Access Officer of Livful, said: “This latest investment round will help us realise the repellent opportunities we had pre-Covid. It will also help us add more products to our portfolio and begin to transition our business model in a unique way that brings systemic change into life sciences. If standard quality medical products have a tough time getting to the health care systems in low- and middle-income countries, how in the world will new innovation? We envision a model that can do both. We’re reimagining the currently ecosystem so that as we disrupt everything, we continuously invite established companies to join us in this new way of thinking.”
