Lepidext was founded in 2015 by Dr. Angelika Fath-Goodin and Dr. Bruce Webb, who realized that a strain of a naturally-occurring corn earworm virus that caused fewer latent cases would have potential as a biocontrol for the corn earworm. In 2016, Lepidext successfully identified such a strain, and obtained a patent on it in 2017. Over the next few years, Lepidext tested the efficacy of this product in the laboratory, and improved production methods and insect rearing capacity. 

 

Lepidext performed the first field trials of this product in the Summer of 2020, which demonstrated transmission in the field and showed the potential of the technology. In the coming years, Lepidext will complete larger efficacy field trials and scale the technology for commercialization.