Root of goodness

A Wellington woman’s dream of turning plant remedies into approved medicines grew from experience

- Caitlin Sykes

Cynthia Hunefeld recalls drawing a circle around a small country at the bottom of her world map, at the age of 10, as her family made plans to emigrate from the Netherlands to New Zealand. Those plans changed soon after, however, when her father became seriously ill from an infection that developed into sepsis, and left the once fit and healthy firefighter permanently disabled.

Her father’s experience planted a seed in Hunefeld’s mind that she’d one day like to help others fighting illness. Now, that’s grown into a business that has ultimately taken root in the country she circled on the map all those years ago.

Hunefeld is founder and CEO of Evithé Biotechnology, a Wellington-based biopharmaceutical company, which is identifying and developing novel, patent-protected medicines derived from plants. Founded in 2017, Evithé is now working on its first botanical drugs to treat chronic inflammation – oral products targeting arthritis based on ginger.

Arthritis is one of our leading causes of disability. Key to the three drugs in development is their ability to target multiple triggers of disease by harnessing how plants respond to threats in the natural world, says Hunefeld.