Run Forrest Innovations, Run!

Back in 1994 when I was finishing my B.Sc. in life-sciences I came across a course called "The biology of the honeybee". I took the course and was enticed, forever. Since then I did a Master's degree in honeybee pollination, developed patents connected to bees, taught children a course called "The Philosophy of the honeybee", and co-founded and was CTO in a company called "Beeologics" (sold to Monsanto in 2011) that developed a solution to prevent colony collapse disorder of bees. For me, the best and most fascinating book ever written is Tom Seeley's "Honeybee Democracy".

My complementary passion is to use technology to solve the greatest challenges of humanity. This brought me to found Forrest Innovations in 2013. Since then I am the CEO of the company looking to rid the world of mosquito transmitted diseases.    

1)      The crisis- Mosquito borne diseases are globally on the rise and expanding their range. There is thus an urgent need for new effective solutions to fend off this threat to global sustainability.

2)      The product- Forrest has developed a wholly inclusive, turnkey solution to use sterile, non-biting male mosquitoes to seek out ambient females, resulting in no emergence of progeny and thus subsequently reducing mosquito populations dramatically.

3)      NVC has been shown to prevent the spread of dengue- Two consecutive projects in Brazil have shown >90% less incidence of dengue in treated neighborhoods.

4)      Forrest is now commercial- We signed our first contract based on winning a public tender.

5)      The solution is fully scalable and enables to directly engage communities in furthering their prosperity by getting rid of mosquito transmitted diseases.

Diseases such as Zika Dengue, Malaria and Chikungunya are endemic in areas that cover half the world’s population with severe annual consequences to human health, a great economic burden and high mortality. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50 million people contract dengue and more than half a million people die from malaria every year. There are no effective vaccines for any of the above and only partially effective treatments. Ongoing efforts by governments, WHO and other organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provide temporary local relief at best, and are currently unable to counter the reemergence and surge of these diseases.

Because of the lack of effective treatments or vaccines, the existing paradigm rests on mosquito-vector control. There are currently several ineffective or partially effective ways that try to address the problem, including the use of toxic insecticides (to which the mosquitoes have grown resistant to), larvicides that are applied to mosquito breeding sites (difficult to implement when there are potentially thousands of such sites per hectare), and breeding site management (requires high degree of cooperation of the local population). However none of the current solutions are able to solve the problem.

We focus on preventing diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Forrest brings together technology and community to help secure humanity's long-term sustainability. We share the audacious vision of WHO- (Global Vector Control Strategy, 2017), and that is to reach a world that is free of human suffering from vector-borne disease. Like WHO we aim to reduce the burden and threat of vector borne-diseases through the effectively locally adapted sustainable vector control.

Forrest implements its Natural Vector Control (NVC) solution to prevent the spread of diseases such as dengue. We produce 100% sterile Non-Genetically Modified (GM) male mosquitoes that are released en-masse to compete with the wild male population. We provide a turnkey solution and the option to transfer technology directly to the communities. Forrest's revolutionary operational process, Natural Vector Control (NVC), combines Modular Mobile Mosquito Units (MMMU) for mass production of sterile male mosquitoes together with educational programs, community outreach and support in monitoring and alleviating mosquito breeding sites. The drastic reduction in the target mosquito species population translates to a dramatic prevention of the mosquito transmitted diseases without creating any environmental collateral damage.

We serve the community! Beyond significant employment opportunities for the local community, we implement educational programs that inform and mobilize positive actions of the population that can contribute to the prevention of dengue and other vector borne diseases. An educational program integrates the NVC male mosquito intervention plan and focuses on the importance of knowledge in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Children participate in playful activities on the biology and history of Aedes aegypti mosquito, prevention methods and presentation of the NVC method. For total transparency activities include guided tours of the laboratory where NVC mosquitoes are produced. In addition to the activities for children, we hold workshops and training courses for community organizations (e.g. Rotary Club). We engage local radio and social media to communicate the positive impact on the community and encourage their involvement. Finally, we note that one of the major drivers for human prosperity is the ability to live in a healthy environment. By reducing mosquito transmitted disease we empower the community to divert resources for the growth of the individuals in the community.

Empowering the weaker global communities to overcome one of the most debilitating components holding back their development. Providing employment, a product that does not require them to be forever dependent on external relief but rather take responsibility for building their own prosperity!

Back in the days of Beeologics, around 2010, we realized that the RNAi technology that we had developed can be used to affect many different biological processes in insects. Already then I had the intention to implement this technology in disease-transmitting mosquitoes. In the first 3 years of Forrest we experimented with many different approaches to reduce the burden of disease transmission in mosquitoes, but it was the zika crisis in 2015 that crystalized the idea that the most robust solution must involve biological insight and and understanding that we need a real-life large-scale solution and not just a "technology that works". It was thus in the beginning of 2016 that I focused the activities of Forrest towards the use of our technology to create sterile male mosquitoes that will be most effective in mosquito population control. Notwithstanding, it took a Herculean effort of the very highly skilled and passionate Forrest team to finally develop such a robust solution, after meticulous empirical testing, resulting in a solution to prevent dengue that we are all very proud of.  

We all need to be aware of our limitations. But also of our strengths. I'm motivated by the realization that by being bold and resolute I can really make a difference in the way this world is run, and especially address the growing calamity that is called "Inequality". This is not a simply philanthropic attitude, but rather a realization that the growing divide between the "haves" and "have not" is not sustainable and can potentially lead to the collapse of society. By developing a solution to one of the most acute problems of the developing world, I believe that we are helping to provide the resilience to grow and to prosper. Poverty is not fate.

I am positioned as a scientist and an entrepreneur to push this cart in the right direction.   

By training, I have acquired scientific, technological and regulatory tools to develop robust solutions. As head of R&D, then CTO of a company that was acquired by Monsanto, now as CEO of Forrest and ss an entrepreneur for over twenty years, I have learnt to bestride technological challenges with the regulatory and public concerns. I have learnt to address these fundamental questions: Does the solution work? (technology)- Yes it does! Is it economical? Profitable businesses are the only sustainable way to gain sufficient backing and sustain the business over the long term. Is it safe, sustainable and can be applied locally? This is the paradigm shift that we have developed. Projects ultimately to be run by the local community FOR the community.

Finally, I am well positioned because in invest myself totally in the project. Invest my own money, devote my entire time and especially adopt a simple but really very effective strategy: i.e. "There is no choice- it HAS to succeed!"

A recent example of overcoming setbacks is the difficulty of loading the answers on the Elevate site… No ability to save drafts and timing out of sessions without providing alert made me prepare full answers three times before being successful in loading… ?

Overcoming setbacks is "The story of my life". One story of overcoming adversity that stands out is an attempt to extort money from me via trying to blackmail me through a law-suit that claimed that I stole intellectual property from one company that I worked in until 2005 and used it to develop the technology of Beeologics. This involved a damning report by the liquidator of the first company and by leaking the story to the leading economical newspaper of Israel. They were sure that I will ask to settle this out of court. My lawyers, being lawyers, suggested that I will pay the settlement because it would cost me less than litigation. That triggered me to fire my lawyers and handle the entire law-suit, including litigation, cross examination etc. by myself. This resulted in me being totally acquitted by the court saying that "The defendants were impeccable throughout", and the economic newspaper featured the acquittal.

In the book of Job there is a nice description of describing leadership ability: "Your words have supported those who stumbled, you have strengthened faltering knees". Shakespeare portrayed this leadership ability in the Henry V, saying to his soldiers: "The fewer men, the greater share of honor. God's will, I pray thee wish not one man more!". Several times the team of Forrest (in Beeologics this also happened) were discouraged feeling that there are too many challenges to overcome with their current capacity and resources. Then I told them the story of the man who was playing chess with his dog in the park. Passers by were amazed and each of them would say "What a genius dog". The man eventually lost his patience with these remarks and said: "How come genius dog?- we played 5 games, and I won three, one ended in a draw and the dog only won one game!"… .. ?  Ofcourse, the message of leadership is "You can be sure that we have got a genius dog. No one else has a dog playing chess. Now he still loses games but eventually with practice and determination "the dog", i.e. Forrest, will become a grandmaster…

The community eventually takes responsibility for overcoming mosquito borne disease

It is well established that disease impacts poverty and social immobility. Taking out of the equation a debilitating disease would empower communities to prosper.

Currently serves the town of Jacarezinho (40,000)

Next year the entire north of Parana State (4 million people)

In five years we intend to be everywhere where there is a problem (at least 2 billion people)

To expand in Brazil within this year

Expand to the main focal area of disease within 5 years and reduce the incidence of dengue globally by 75% (WHO 10-year goal).

Funding, partnerships with local communities, global awareness (WHO) 

Lady Macbeth famously said: "Words- to the heat of deeds- too cold breath gives". 

TecPar- the technological Innovations Institute of Parana State in Brazil where we are officially incubated.

We have a differential model to target a >10 billion dollar market. Effective prevention will bring about a highly reduced disease burden, and a subsequent dramatic drop in health-related expenditures on treatment, which are notoriously at least 10 times higher than prevention. The medium and long term cost-benefit analysis of health authorities will bring our success.  

For countries such as Brazil or other Latin American countries, India and other South East Asia countries, or other third world countries, we provide a turnkey solution that covers the entire Forrest paradigm, followed by empowerment of the local communities through technology transfer licenses. In markets such as the U.S., we can target the consumer directly by supplying the sterile male mosquitoes only.

Until now we have been powered by equity and debt investment. Now we will be operating projects in Brazil that will be paid by the State or the federal government. We also seek impact investors to accelerate our outreach into additional geographies.

We have already completed one commercial revenue generating project in Brazil won through a public tender. We have also raised >$12 million of funds in the 7 years of our existence. In the future the activity in Brazil will be self-sustaining through payments by the customers and expansion will be fueled by equity and non-equity investment.

Yes. We are now seeking a lead investor to lead our global expansion series B round. 

We are looking to close $5-10 million of equity financing that will be used to expand our operations globally. We aim to complete this by the end of Q3 of 2020. 

Running operations in Brazil and marketing and sales to expand.