Vector Expedited Review Voucher (VERV) was enacted by the US Congress on December 30, 2022. Administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the registrant of a new insecticide for a vector-borne disease is awarded a voucher for expedited review of a second product seeking registration with EPA. Expedited review or “speed to market” of the second product creates a monetary value for registrants – an incentive to find innovative insecticides for high burden global diseases.

VERV is modeled after the Food & Drug Adminstration’s (FDA) successful Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program. Over 70 vouchers have been awarded since 2008. The voucher incentive was proposed by Duke University scholars Henry Grabowski, Jeffrey Moe and David Ridley. Nick Hamon collaborated with Moe & Ridley to adapt the PRV concept for vector control when he served as CEO of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium, Go to LEARN MORE to link to FDA’s PRV program description and download Ridley, Grabowski & Moe 2006 article proposing PRV.

Ridley, Moe & Hamon published a Health Affairs (2017) article proposing VERV and describing the necessary features of a successful program. They estimated $12 million – $152 million value for a voucher depending upon the market size into which the second product enters upon receiving expedited review approval. Awarded vouchers can also be sold which is an alternative method to estimate voucher value. Go to LEARN MORE to link to EPA’s VERV program description and to download Ridley, Moe & Hamon 2017 article proposing VERV.

The first voucher was awarded December 2024 to Mosquito Mate for the wAlbB wolbachia strain in the Aedes albopictus species of mosquitoes. The wolbachia bacterium suppresses mosquito populations by killing offspring of the adult mosquito through cytoplasmic incompatibility. Aedes albopictus are known carriers of chikungunya, Dengue fever and dirofilariasis. Go to LEARN MORE to download an article by Hamon, Markowski, Moe & Nimmo recommending how EPA could apply eligibility criteria to biopesticides for the VERV award.