This Giving Season: Drops for Life

At Biossance, we’re passionate about helping people and our planet. Which is why we partnered with Zagaya, a nonprofit started by a few of the founders of Amyris, our parent company. Zagaya, through their Drops for Life program, donates cures for malaria to treat children in sub-Sahara Africa, where the deadly disease takes its heaviest toll. Contributions from Biossance help enable Drops for Life to purchase and distribute these highly effective malarial treatments, keeping kids healthy across the globe. We love that.

Drops for Life was created out of a continuing desire to help those in need. The story began back 2003 when a group of scientists made a bold proposal to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: they had developed a technology that could produce a cure for malaria—and they wanted to create the treatments and give the patented technology away. The Gates Foundation agreed. This brought scientists together from Amyris, UC Berkeley, Sanofi and the Institute for OneWorld Health to produce millions of medications and find a way to distribute them where needed most. Today, over 120 million malaria cures have been delivered to treat children suffering from the disease—all at no profit.

Interestingly, the same lifesaving science used to create the malaria treatments has led the way to develop many new ingredients that help the sustainability of our planet, including our own squalane. Bio-fermented from rapidly renewable sugarcane, our 100% plant sourced squalane is a highly stable and effective super skin moisturizer. And this is fantastic news from an environmental standpoint, since squalane was originally harvested from shark liver (obviously not so great for the environment or the sharks).

Biossance is proud to be a part of Amyris and the science that continues to help people and planet, as well as support much needed programs like Drops for Life. We’re excited to see what future discoveries unfold to make our lives and world a better place. And yes, we love that, too.