ABOUT US

Bio-Gene is an Australian public biotechnology company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:BGT), that is developing a patent protected product platform as a new class of insecticides. The insecticidal activity of this β-triketone chemical class was first discovered following a botanical screening program looking to identify natural product based insecticides in Australian flora.

Bio-Gene’s is developing two products targeted at different sectors of the insecticide market. The natural product Qcide^™ is an oil extracted from the leaves of a rare cultivar of an Australian eucalypt, the Gympie Messmate (Eucalyptus cloeziana). This product is focused on organic insect control. Flavocide™ is a chemically synthesised product developed as a nature identical molecule to molecules also found in Eucalyptus cloeziana extracts.

Bio-Gene owns patents covering the use of these β-triketone insecticides for insect control.

Both products have been developed by Bio-Gene to address the major worldwide problem of insecticide resistance in the areas of crop protection (including grain storage), public health, consumer applications and animal health.

Both molecules have been shown to have promising insecticidal activity against a large range of insects known to cause damage to agricultural crops such as aphids and mites and against insects causing major public health issues such as Aedes mosquitoes which are the carrier of Zika and Dengue virus. Studies have shown that Flavocide also appears to act effectively on resistant insect populations. Flavocide has been shown to have a unique mode of action.

Bio-Gene is continuing to assess these two products against other insects in laboratory and field settings.

It has also recently put in place partnerships with leading entomology groups worldwide specifically as part of potential mosquito control programs and for a range of public health, crop, food storage, and consumer uses.

Based on these results and ongoing studies Bio-Gene has now designated Flavocide a formal product development candidate and plans to initiate registration enabling studies such as detailed toxicology assessment as well as larger field trials.