Molecular Attraction, a Stockholm-area company, develops semiochemicals, chemical signals that steer mosquito behaviour, including a feeding stimulant based on HMBPP, a molecule associated with the malaria parasite that triggers mosquito feeding, according to Scientific American, and sex pheromones that disrupt mating. Used in tiny amounts, they could replace or reduce insecticides, to which mosquitoes are increasingly resistant. The company was selected in the EIC Accelerator's March 2023 cut-off with blended finance and received an EU grant of €2.50 million for SemioMVC, a €4.17 million project that ran from December 2023 to May 2026, according to CORDIS. The central promise was "a large-scale trial in sub-Saharan Africa" of efficacy, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact.
The only public report, to November 2024, says active feeders containing HMBPP were developed and tested "in controlled environments", and that field trials of sex pheromones were "successfully conducted", making it "the first mosquito-specific sex pheromone product with successful field trial results", according to the CORDIS reporting page. The report gives no location, size or data for the field trials. No results from the large-scale African trial have been published, and the project ended in May 2026.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Molecular Attraction AB, now in Solna
- Registered office in CORDIS
- Nacka
- Products
- HMBPP feeders, mosquito sex pheromones
- Targets
- Malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases
- Website sections
- Refugee response, early access
- Share capital
- SEK 71,000
- EIC funding
- Blended finance
Where Molecular Attraction Stands Now
Molecular Attraction reported no net sales in 2024, other operating income of SEK 11.2 million and a small net loss of SEK 78,000, according to its accounts on Allabolag. Its cash fell from SEK 14.2 million at the end of 2023 to SEK 1.3 million at the end of 2024, while it capitalised SEK 5.5 million of development and bought SEK 2.6 million of equipment. The company is active. Its website promotes "effective, durable, maintenance-free and low-cost" products for controlling vectors and offers early access, but lists no product for sale.
"The SemioMVC project achieved groundbreaking results as the first mosquito-specific sex pheromone product with successful field trial results."
Molecular Attraction, first periodic report to the EICThe Technology: Chemistry Mosquitoes Respond To
Mosquitoes find hosts and mates by smell. Molecular Attraction's feeders use a stimulant that makes mosquitoes feed as if on blood, so a control agent can be delivered to mosquitoes specifically. Its pheromones target swarming and mating. The company's objective cites €8 billion a year spent on mosquito control chemicals and an extra one billion people at risk of mosquito-borne disease by 2050.
What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows
The award promised a large-scale African trial to show efficacy and cost-effectiveness, which the company would use to enter the market. The first year produced lab-validated feeders and pheromone field trials. The large trial, the project's main output, is not in the public record, and there is no final report.
- HMBPP feedersDeliveredTested in controlled settings.
- Pheromone field trialsPartialNo data or sites given.
- Large African trialUnverifiedNo results published.
- Market entryNot yetNo sales.
The Money
The EU paid 60% of the project. Other operating income rose almost fourfold in 2024, the first full year of the project, and the company capitalised SEK 5.5 million of development. With SEK 1.3 million of cash at the end of 2024, it needed new funding; none has been announced, and whether the EIC Fund invested is not public.
What Cannot Be Checked
Questions for the EIC
Where the African trial took place and what it showed, where the pheromone field trials ran and with what data, whether the EIC Fund invested, and how Molecular Attraction is financed now are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
Mosquitoes kill more than half a million people a year, mostly young children, the company says, and insecticides are failing. Targeted, low-dose chemical signals would be a new tool for Europe's global health efforts and, as mosquito habitats spread, for Europe itself. The EIC paid for the field evidence that would prove it; that evidence has not been published.
What the award promised
A large-scale sub-Saharan trial proving green, cost-effective mosquito control.
What the record shows
Lab-tested feeders, pheromone trials without data, and no published large trial.
The Verdict
Promising science, missing proof
Molecular Attraction made early progress with EIC money. The large field trial that was the point of the grant has left no public trace.
Molecular Attraction and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.
