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ORIGAMI HEALTHCARE PRODUCTS, Inc.
Receives Grand Challenges Explorations Grant
For Groundbreaking Research in Global Health and Development
June 8, 2014 - Los Angeles, CA - ORIGAMI Healthcare Products, Inc., a public benefits corporation, announced today that it
is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Danny
Resnic, CEO and director of new product development at the firm, will pursue an innovative global health and
development research project, titled, "Non-Gender-Specific Internal Condom".
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funds projects worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in
how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Danny Resnic's project is one of over 50
Grand Challenges Explorations Round 12 grants announced June 3, 2014, by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
To receive funding, Resnic and other Grand Challenges Explorations Round 12 winners demonstrated in a
two-page online application a bold idea in one of five critical global heath and development topic areas that
included; agriculture development, behavior change and looking into animal and human health. Applications for
the next Round will be accepted starting September 2014.
Innovative Internal Condom is the First Ever Proposed
Rolled latex condoms, unchanged except for colors and flavors since the Wright Brothers perfected the
airplane, are clinically tested, approved and marketed only for penile/vaginal use as contraception and to help
prevent transmission of STDs. The patented IC condom innovation is a practical dual-purpose,
interchangeable strategy for either vaginal or anal intercourse. Resnic says, 'the innovation uses a unique
biocompatible material that provides alternative solutions intended to resolve decades-old consumer
complaints and dissatisfaction with male and female condoms. Designed for convenience and user
friendliness, the IC is intended to promote a more pleasurable fluid sensation for each partner to improve
consumer acceptability and to increase correct, consistent condom compliance as a consumer-driven
preference to the old rolled condom'.
To date, the only internal type of condom available has been a 'female' condom called FC-2. Despite the
globally reported consumer resistance to the product, it generates $60M+/yr. in donor market sales due to its
unique, singular market position as the only female condom submitted to the FDA for approval. Its use has
also been re-purposed by some consumers and encouraged by several NGOs as a 'best-available' option for
anal sex protection. However, no male or female condom to date has ever requested an approval from the
FDA or the CE-Mark in Europe as anal sex protection, a prominent means of HIV transmission worldwide.
Manufacturers and the regulatory agencies know that anal sex clinical data would likely never support safety
standards established exclusively for penile/vaginal sex. In fact, the FDA states, "Condoms may be more likely
to break during anal intercourse than during other types of sex because of the greater amount of friction and
other stresses involved.' Resnic believes that 'this decades-old knowledge has been successfully and quietly
concealed with a smoke and mirrors approach by the FDA and CE-Mark.'
The most recent public position on the subject of condoms relevant to anal sex protection was originally
provided in the mid-1980's by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who concluded then that, 'Condoms provide
some protection, but anal intercouse is simply too dangerous to practice.' (Yes, that was an FDA website typo
for 'intercourse').
Production of scale is expected to competitively position the IC priced significantly lower than the FC2 by 23%.
The IC would be attractive for men because it eliminates the need (and the struggle) for the old rolled condom,
a source of countless consumer complaints and dissatisfaction that has led to an alarming reduction in condom
usage. Additionally, the CDC reports rolled condom contraception effectiveness at an 18% failure rate. Resnic,
finds that statistic 'as unacceptable as traffic lights that could fail 18% of the time'.
About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a US $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Launched in 2008, over 950 people in more than 55 countries have received Grand Challenges Explorations
grants. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative
uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary
data required. Initial grants of US$100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the
opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US$1 million.
About ORIGAMI Healthcare Products, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Danny Resnic, a native of Boston, founded his public benefits company, ORIGAMI Healthcare Products, Inc.,
in Los Angeles, CA, to commercialize the next generation of condoms designed around pleasure but supported
with real world safety data. Building upon earlier clinical research and development supported by the National
Institutes of Health, the inventor continues his long-term commitment to introduce a condom revolution with a
new brand of condom innovations. Resnic studied design at the renowned Art Center College of Design in CA.
Resnic was infected with HIV in 1993, following an experience when a condom he used broke. That life
changing milestone forged his commitment to understand how rolled condoms could have survived in the
market unchanged and unchallenged for nearly 100 years.
Resnic determined that the old rolled condom had been clinging to an inherently flawed and outdated narrative
about protection and obligation. Resnic explains the phenomenon as the 'lollipop lie'; a marketing myth to
convince consumers that they should be able to 'taste the lollipop' through its wrapper. He believes the
condom industry, now monopolized by the three publicly traded brands: Trojan (Church & Dwight Co.
Inc./Arm&Hammer(NYSE: CHD); Durex (Reckitt-Benckiser(LON: RB); and Lifestyles Ansell Ltd.(Ann: Asx),
that collectively control a $5 Billion USD, 90% global market share, perpetuates the 'lollipop lie' with million
dollar marketing campaigns.
Resnic theorized that 'a missing link in the condom narrative was never considered in the early 1920's when
they were industrialized'. Resnic says, 'the 'fluid factor' is the missing link that was overlooked due in part to
production limitations at the end of the industrial revolution.' Resnic defines the fluid factor as 'a prerequisite
condition of our sexual anatomy that is eliminated when condoms block the normal fluid mucosal contact
between partners that creates the stimulation, excitement and exhilaration associated with sexual pleasure.
Rolled condoms attempt to transfer sensation through the material like trying to taste a lollipop through the
wrapper. Condom factories in the 1920's did not anticipate how significant that missing component would
become in terms of consumer acceptability mainly because condoms were intended for protection, not for
pleasure'.
The innovative Non-Gender-Specific Internal Condom is under development by Resnic's company in Los
Angeles. The functional performance clinical research will be independently conducted by co-investigator,
Dr. Mags Beksinska, PhD, director of research at MatCH Research, at the start of 2015, in Durban, South
Africa. MatCH [Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health] was established in 2010, as a division of the Wits
Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the University of the
Witwatersrand. MatCH is based in Durban and was formerly (since 1998) the Durban Office of the RHRU
[Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit].
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Source: Press_Release-Gates_Grant.pdf
"Reproduced with permission - ORIGAMI Condoms"
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