Gene-drives to quell Zika mosquitoes moving faster than predicted

After tests in Brazil by Oxitec, the British biotech company owned by Intrexon, showed a fall of 82% in the population of wild mosquitoes after the introduction of its genetically engineered mosquitoes whose offspring die before reaching adulthood, the FDA is "greatly expediting" the company's application for further testing in the Florida Keys and is planning to release a draft environmental assessment soon. Despite critics who question whether the technology is scalable to tackle the Zika epidemic, Intrexon is building a factory in Piracicaba, Brazil, to produce 60m male mosquitoes a week, enough to protect at least 300k people.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In the expanding realm ruled by Randal J. Kirk, sliced apples don’t brown. Salmon grow twice as fast without swimming upriver to spawn. Beloved cats are reborn.

And male mosquitoes are unleashed with the sole mission to mate, pass on a gene that kills their offspring, and die.

A few decades ago, the foods and creatures nurtured by Mr. Kirk would have been found only in dystopian fantasies like those written by Margaret Atwood. But Mr. Kirk’s company, Intrexon, is fast becoming one of the world’s most diverse biotechnology companies, with ventures ranging from unloved genetically engineered creatures to potential cancer cures and gene therapies, gasoline substitutes, cloned kittens and even glow-in-the-dark Dino Pet toys made from microbes.

Until recently, Mr. Kirk, 62, was a relatively unknown, self-made billionaire, buying up or investing in companies in the biotech world. So when Intrexon acquired the British company Oxitec last summer, it attracted little attention as he extended his reach into genetically modified insects.