Thiruvananthapuram: HLL Lifecare Limited won a research grant of Rs 6.43 crore from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-dation (BMGF) under the Grand Challenges Explo-rations (GCE) Phase II award for their graphene condom project.
The $964,240 award, a follow-on to an earlier research grant for the proof-of-concept project to produce graphene condom funded by BMGF with $100,000 has been provided for “Pilot Scale Production and Clinical Trials of Graphene incorporated Natural Rubber Latex (GNRL) Condoms”.
The research team, led by Dr Lakshminarayanan Ragupathy, had successfully completed the first phase of the study, which involved producing the prototype of graphene - natural rubber latex nano composites based condoms for high heat transfer, improved sensitivity and drug delivery as an approach to increasing the “sexual pleasure and the value of condoms”.
“This second stage investment will be used to scale up graphene incorporated Natural Rubber Latex condom production,” said HLL CMD Dr M. Ayyappan.
“The fund will also be utilised for the incorporation of graphene into NRL latex, quality checking, viral penetration test and stability and clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy. HLL is hoping to start the marketing graphene condoms to the entire world including Sub-Saharan African countries, by the end of the phase II,” added Dr Ayyappan.
Dr Lakshminarayanan Ragupathy, the polymer scientist who was the principal investigator of this project, had earlier received the GCE fund to develop Poly (glycerol sebacate) based condoms in the Grand Challenges Explorations Round 12. The Grand Challenges Explorations, launched by BMGF, seeks to engage more of world’s innovators to focus on major scientific challenges that will lead to preventing, treating, and curing diseases of the developing world.
