PRESS RELEASE - 06/15/2009
Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A. - June 15, 2009 - Intralytix, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army to develop a bacteriophage-based food safety product for reducing or eliminating contamination from pathogenic Salmonella and Shigella spp. The product would be used to eliminate or significantly reduce contamination of fruits, vegetables and other food products.
"We are very pleased with the award because it helps to enrich Intralytix's portfolio of phage-based, food safety products, and it demonstrates the confidence that the U.S. Army has in Intralytix's leadership in developing bacteriophage-based preparations for food safety applications for military and civilian populations," stated Dr. Alexander Sulakvelidze, Intralytix's Vice-President for Research and Development and Chief Scientist. He added: "We expect that, once developed, this product will significantly improve the safety of food that may be contaminated with pathogenic salmonella and shigella. Its anti-salmonella phage component will be useful in reducing the severity of worldwide salmonellosis outbreaks among civilian and military populations. Each year, an estimated 1.4 million cases of salmonellosis occur in the United States alone. Also, its anti-shigella phage component will to be useful in developing countries where U.S. troops may be stationed, and/or where shigellosis is endemic. The annual, worldwide number of Shigella infections is approximately 165 million, mostly in developing countries, resulting in approximately 1.1 million deaths."
"This will be the third phage-based food safety product developed by Intralytix," noted the company's CEO, John Woloszyn. He also noted that "we have previously received FDA and EPA approvals of our phage-based cocktail effective against Listeria monocytogenes ("ListShield"), and the U.S. Army has supported the development of a second food safety product effective against E. coli 0157:H7 ("EcoShield"). Commercial sales for ListShield have recently commenced and regulatory approval of EcoShield is expected in 2009," he added.
Intralytix, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on improving human health through the development and commercialization of innovative products for food safety and human therapeutics using its core bacteriophage (or phage) technology platform.
For more information, contact John Woloszyn (410-625-0300 / jwoloszyn@intralytix.com) or Dr. Alexander Sulakvelidze (410-625-2533 / asulakvelidze@intralytix.com).