AlphaRx Inc. has filed a second patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Patent Office for its' nanoparticle based drug delivery platform covering several antibiotic products being developed by the company targeted to treat life threatening infectious diseases.
Presently, the company, using its nanoparticle drug delivery platforms, is focusing on the development of Zysolin for Hospital Acquired Pneumonia (HAP) and Vansolin for Sepsis. Each of these unmet indications have multi-million dollars market potential. The company plans to advance these two products into human trials in mid-2007.
Zysolin is a nanoparticle encapsulated formulation of Gentamicin, a broad spectrum antibiotic targeted for intracellular delivery. This drug candidate is currently undergoing in-vivo studies including: biodistribution studies, evaluation of the efficacy in murine infection models and toxicological studies. HAP is the second most common hospital-acquired infection. It affects approximately 300,000 patients in the United States annually and is associated with mortality rates of 30 to 33 percent for hospitalized patients and mortality rates as high as 70% for patients in the ICU setting.
Vansolin, the active ingredient is Vancomycin, a very powerful antibiotic used mainly in hospitals to treat life threatening infectious disease such as hospital acquired pneumonia, ventilator associated pneumonia and severe sepsis. The Company believes that encapsulating Vancomycin into a nanoparticle formulation may increase its efficacy. The company anticipates that in vivo, after IV infusion, white blood cells will readily absorb Vansolin nanoparticles and transport them to the site of inflammation and infection, thereby increasing the local concentration of Vancomycin and ultimately increasing its bactericidal effect.
The company's nanoparticle drug delivery system offers the advantage of a targeted or site-specific delivery of antibiotics and other drugs to affected cells over an extended period, thereby increasing drug efficacy while reducing toxic side-effects.