Bio-Gene jumps sharply as US DoD awards grants for novel insecticide development

Bio-Gene Technology (ASX:BGT) has received its receipt of contracts from the U.S. Department of Defence to assess BGT’s flagship insecticides.

Bio-Gene’s ‘Flavocide‘ will be developed into a wearable product ($1.6 million), while a second grant ($1.4 million) will go towards turning ‘Qcide’ into a spray. The latter grant is geared towards bed bug infestations.

Bio-Gene bills itself as “an Australian company developing new insecticides derived from nature to achieve high impact worldwide.” Those derivations from nature are what underpins, according to the company’s website, its boast that Flavocide has an entirely new mode of action (MOA) compared to other insecticides.

That MOA, in turn, leaves Bio-Gene to state on its website its products may be effective in tackling insecticide resistance.

At any rate, the company’s ‘wearable’ Flavocide grant from the U.S. DOD will be a collaboration with private U.S.-based GearJump LLC, an R&D company with fingers in more than one sector.

The latter will produce a “spatially active” product – what this means exactly isn’t immediately clear.

“The award of these grants involved a peer-reviewed, highly competitive process and provides substantial validation for the potential for both Flavocide and Qcide to provide new solutions for pest control,” BGT CEO Tim Grogan said.

“We are looking forward to working with our collaborating organisations in the fight against insect threats to defence and civilian personnel in various locations around the world.

“These grants aim to minimise the risk of infection from vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue.”

The news has been good for the nanocap company. In the second hour of Wednesday trades BGT shares jumped to 6.5cps – reflecting a spike of 130%.

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