Viridax™ Corporation (Viridax™) is a biopharmaceutical discovery and development company formed to expedite the commercialization of new technologies and products for the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases, especially antibiotic-resistant infections.

The bacteriophage-based technologies under development by Viridax™ specifically target bacterial pathogens that incite resistant infections in substantial human populations. The Company is developing specific bacteriophage products for the treatment of bacterial infections incited by Staphylococcus aureus and other Staphylococcal species encountered in the community setting and as nosocomial (hospital-acquired) agents. Many strains of Staphylococcus aureus and other Staphylococcal species are now resistant to most commercially-available antibiotics. The health threat and economic consequences of common Staph infections are now catastrophic in many areas of both the developing and the developed world.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus or Staph) is a common infectious bacterium, typically encountered on the skin and in the nasal passages of healthy people. Staph can cause serious infections of the bone, soft tissue, eye, respiratory tract and blood stream, and it is one of the most common causes of skin infections. The forms of Staph that are resistant to methicillin and other antibiotics are known as Methicillin-Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA). Vancomycin is generally used to treat resistant Staph infections with some success. However, a new form of resistant Staph, known as Vancomycin-Intermediate-Resistant Staph aureus (VISA) has emerged to further confound treatment. The most troublesome form of antibiotic-resistant Staph is known as Vancomycin-Resistant Staph aureus (VRSA). MRSA is a formidable bacterial pathogen responsible for a variety of infections commonly seen in patients of all ages. Acquisition of this organism is typically associated with particular settings, such as health care institutions, and especially hospitals and long-term care facilities, and patient groups, such as patients with prolonged hospitalization, past antimicrobial use, indwelling catheters, decubitis ulcers, postoperative surgical wounds, and use of intravenous drugs or treatment with enteral feedings or dialysis. Infections incited by MRSA present a considerable dilemma to clinicians, since therapeutic options are limited and suboptimal dosing contributes to heightened mortality and increased length of hospital stay. Over the years MRSA strains have gained multiple mechanisms of resistance to the major classes of antimicrobial agents, including the macrolides, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines, as well as to the lincosamides, such as clindamycin. For the past several decades, glycopeptide antibiotics, such as vancomycin, were considered to be the only agents to which MRSA had not developed resistance. Unfortunately, because of the overuse of glycopeptide antibiotics, forms of MRSA have now emerged with resistance to these agents as well.

Recent reports of Community-Associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections in patients with no known risk factors have serious public health implications. Conventional therapeutic options for these infections are untested, so the potential exists for high morbidity and mortality. Clinical definitions have been established and new molecular approaches have allowed investigators to distinguish CA-MRSA from traditional Nosocomial (hospital-acquired) MRSA strains. There have been several reports of CA-MRSA infections throughout the world, including several outbreaks in the United States. Transmission has occurred by close physical contact in situations involving children in day-care centers, children and adults on Indian reservations, athletes, military personnel, correctional facilities, and men having sex with men. Of concern, these patients are otherwise healthy individuals with no known risk factors for MRSA infection.

Although infections resulting from the usual strains of bacteria continue to have high rates of cure, antibiotic-resistant strains have emerged in most countries, with case fatality rates of 40 to 60 percent. In this post-antibiotic era, alternative therapies are eagerly sought by governments, public health agencies and the health care industry. The emerging armamentarium of new kinds or classes of antibiotics, especially those targeted to resistant infections, is slow to emerge and costly to produce, and remains as a substantial unmet medical need. The response to the growing antibiotic resistance crisis may be best addressed by alternatives to conventional antibiotics.

The objectives of Viridax™ are to provide safe, effective and affordable treatment alternatives to conventional antibiotics, and to demonstrate the clinical utility of the Viridax™ bacteriophage products by substantially reducing the incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality of the targeted bacterial infections in both community and hospital settings. Viridax™ plans to develop products that are at least as safe as antibiotics, but that will target antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and at lower cost, thus providing access to world markets.

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