SenesTech, a Flagstaff biotechnology company specializing in rodent fertility control, says it is changing the world. “We can and we are changing the world here in Arizona,” announced Joan Koerber-Walker, CEO of Arizona BioIndustry Association to an audience at High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff last month. SenesTech and Arizona Bio are part of a biotech community that promotes life science business in Arizona.
The audience, including Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Andy Tobin, Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours, City Councilperson Carla Brewster and others, gathered to hear SenesTech CEO Loretta Mayer, Ph.D., present the latest SenesTech updates. These included information regarding EPA registration, a new patent application, signed partnerships and current field studies.
“When people tell you that you can’t build a business that has global reach, they are wrong!” said Mayer. In June, the Northern Arizona company signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Neogen Corporation (Nasdaq: NEOG) to manufacture and market a rodent control product that uses fertility control to manage rat populations. Orkin is the distributor of the product in the United States. “Their stock took a $2.60 bump in values after the announcement of the agreement,” she said.
Senestech develops pharmaceuticals that control reproduction in rats by causing rodent ovaries to regress, resulting in a “mouse menopause” that reduces rat populations.
“If poisoning rats was so effective, then why is New York calling me?” asked Mayer, founder of SenesTech and co-inventor on the patents that formed the basis for launching SenesTech’s research and development efforts. MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) called from New York City “and said they need us,” she explained.
Testing by SenesTech within the New York City MTA was featured in a segment of Stephen Hawking’s “Brave New World” TV show.
New York City is just one of the parts of the world being changed by the Northern Arizona company. SenesTech began its work in Southeast Asia where rice rat populations consume 17 to 50 percent of the rice crop every year. “If we could reduce that by only five percent, we could feed an additional 380 million people per year,” said Mayer.
More recently, the biotech firm signed a cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins, Colo. Mayer also announced a new agreement with Texas A&M for using the technology to control wild boar populations in the south that are decimating agriculture. Other accomplishments include negotiations with companies in Australia, an agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for dog birth control research and field research for Smithfield Foods International, one of the largest food processing companies in the world.
SenesTech’s product is currently in the process of EPA registration. “We went to the EPA in Washington – they were riveted,” said the CEO. Mayer explained that because the Senestech product has no effect on the environment or other animals, the EPA would approve it through a special program. The new “High Impact” category under which Senestech applied also helped realize a 75 percent reduction in typical business fees for the approval process.
“People ask me, ‘Why are you in Flagstaff?’ We have raised $23 million and 68 percent is from Northern Arizona. How do you do that? We do it with bootstrapping, and with the FDC and a team of lawyers,” said Mayer. “You can’t swing a shovel [in Flagstaff] without hitting a biologist or ecologist or young people who want to change the world.”
She earned both master’s degree (1997) and a doctorate degree (2000) in biology from Northern Arizona University. She accepted a post-doctoral appointment with the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona in 2000, and it was there that she developed a chemical method of inducing peri- and post-menopause in rodents.
“We believe that we can build, manufacture and ship from here to the Pacific Rim,” said Mayer. “We’re not going to San Jose.”
SenesTech
3140 N Caden Ct, Flagstaff
928-779-4143
http://senestech.com
Arizona BioIndustry Association
107 S. Southgate Drive, Chandler
480-779-8101
http://www.azbio.org
By Stacey Wittig, Flagstaff Business News