A British inventor helped save millions from HIV – now he wants to do it all over again

Mr Koska’s story is four decades in the making. In 1984, he was a long-haired, 23-year-old public school graduate, struggling to find his calling in life. 

Avoiding university because he “didn’t see any value in it”, he instead headed for the Caribbean, where he took up sailing and eventually found himself building models of murder scenes for lawyers in the region to use in court. “That was really emboldening, because I was doing something with my hands which made a difference,” he recalled.

Mr Koska’s path took a turn when, as the world reeled from the outbreak of the HIV epidemic, he was “stopped in [his] tracks” by an article predicting that the reuse of syringes, along with sexual contact, would be an unstoppable force in the spread of the disease.

“How can HIV be spread by the thing that’s meant to be making people better? That’s like saying cars kill more people than they transport,” he said. Within “one minute,” he knew he had found his calling.

He immediately returned to England and spent three years doing what amounted to a self-taught degree in syringe manufacturing. Until one day he woke up and drew the design that became the final product.

But Mr Koska’s invention was at first met with derision and pushback. Manufacturers and global governments, entrenched in their ways and fearful to stray from the status quo, didn’t want to listen to the emphatic Englishman with a big idea. 

It was 14 years before he had his breakthrough. In 2001, Unicef (the UN’s children fund) bought 20 billion syringes for their child immunisation programme, igniting a global boom that has only continued to flourish. He was later awarded an OBE in 2006 for his contribution to global healthcare.

‘Things are starting to accelerate’

Now, the launch of Mr Koska’s latest invention is beginning to gain pace. 

Apiject has already racked up a hefty $250 million (£189 million) in investments – $100m (£75,000) from private investors and the US government has poured in several grants totalling $150m (£114 million) for Apiject to lead pandemic preparedness research.

“They’re all ready to go to the next stage,” he says. “The next step is licensing. We already have a lot of machines that make [BFS containers].”

“We’re talking to companies and customers on every continent, but there are some early movers…when something like a new malaria vaccine comes up…our attention pricks. We wonder if that’s something, if there’s an opportunity to launch,” he added.

“You’re going from an established manufacturing base to a new one…so [manufacturers] have got to re-equip and at that point, those are one opportunity that we have.” 

Mr Koska said that they are “very close” to putting the design into practise. “Within [the next] two years. Definitely,” he says.

“The end result is the possibility of safer injections for everyone everywhere. I think that if I can prove, deliver and execute the possibility, it’s then up to the world,” says Mr Koska. 

“If even 10 per cent of the world changed to this system, we would save millions of lives a month…It’s laying the blueprint, because it may take longer than I’ve got to deliver it,” he adds.

“Things are happening at a different pace now. In the last couple of months, [compared to] the last five years. All these things are starting to accelerate…I think we can smell the coffee.”

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