ABSTRACT
In August of 2015, Intrexon, a synthetic biology firm, acquired Oxitec for $160 million for its genetically modified (GM) male Aedes aegypti mosquitos (Intrexon 2015). These mosquitos were engineered to pass a sterility gene on to their offspring. Earlier that year, Oxitec initiated field trials in Piracicaba, Brazil, which successfully reduced the population of this dengue and Zika vector by 80 percent (Pollack 2016). Prior to this acquisition, Intrexon's share price had been dropping precipitously due to its lack of tangible revenue-generating products. Following the recent outbreak of the Zika virus, however, investors have regained interest in Intrexon (Williams 2016). Oxitec has expanded its GM mosquito production facilities in Brazil in response. If successful, Oxitec's mosquito might prove to investors that biotechnology can finally produce viable, valuable commodities (Pollack 2016). Similarly, by potentially stemming an epidemic, Intrexon might give a skeptical global public evidence that genetically modified organisms are not monstrous, and instead have a social and ecological value. In this way, synthetic biology offers to make good on unfulfilled promises of the previous generation of genetic technology to produce valuable innovations.
