ViroStatics, srl is an Italian/USA biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs produced using biotechnology. They include proteins , nucleic acids and living microorganisms like virus and bacteria where the virulence of viruses and bacteria is reduced by the process of attenuation, they can be used for therapeutic or in vivo diagnostic...

 company with a focus on research and development

Research and development

The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...

 for the treatment of infectious diseases such as HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

 (AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

) and hepatitis C

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...

 and cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. The company is developing first-in-class AV-HALT

AV-HALT

AntiViral-HyperActivation Limiting Therapeutics are an investigational class of antiretroviral drugs used to treat Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection...

 antiretroviral drug

Antiretroviral drug

Antiretroviral drugs are medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV. When several such drugs, typically three or four, are taken in combination, the approach is known as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, or HAART...

s for the treatment of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 and other chronic diseases.

History

ViroStatics was formed In 2007 as a for-profit spin-off from the Research Institute for Human and Genetic Therapy (RIGHT), a US-based 501(c)3 corporation pursuing innovative antiviral

Antiviral

Antiviral may refer to:*Antiviral drug*Antiviral protein*Antivirus software*Antiviral Therapy, an academic journal...

 therapies and vaccine

Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

 research. Led by CEO Franco Lori, MD, PhD, ViroStatics has its corporate headquarters in Sassari

Sassari

Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...

 (Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

) Italy, R&D laboratories in the Science and Technology Park of Sardinia (Sardegna Ricerche) in Porto Conte-Capo Caccia (Sardinia) and Business Development offices in Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

 USA.

Drugs

Antiviral/Anti-infective

ViroStatics is developing two generations of anti-HIV drugs known as AV-HALTs (AntiViral-HyperActivation Limiting Therapeutics). Unlike traditional anti-HIV medications that seek solely to reduce viral replication, AV-HALTs also target the chronic immune system hyperactivation now known to contribute to the loss of CD4

CD4

CD4 is a glycoprotein expressed on the surface of T helper cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. It was discovered in the late 1970s and was originally known as leu-3 and T4 before being named CD4 in 1984...

 T helper cells and disease progression to AIDS. Immune system hyperactivation also plays a role in other chronic infections and the company has an on-going R&D program addressing other diseases, including hepatitis C.

• VS411 (low-dose hydroxyurea
  Hydroxyurea
  Hydroxycarbamide or hydroxyurea is an antineoplastic drug, first synthesized in 1869, used in myeloproliferative disorders, specifically polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia...
  
   + didanosine
  Didanosine
  Didanosine is sold under the trade names Videx and Videx EC. It is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, effective against HIV and used in combination with other antiretroviral drug therapy as part of highly active antiretroviral therapy .-History:The related pro-drug of didanosine,...
  
  , investigational), a two-drug combination AV-HALT in Phase II development for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Using a patented combination of low-dose hydroxyurea (HU) and didanosine (ddI), VS411 both reduces viral replication and the hyperactivation of the immune system now known to contribute to the loss of CD4 T-helper cells and disease progression to AIDS. The company has recently completed a multi-national dose-ranging Phase II clinical trial of VS411 in Argentina, Italy, Uganda, and Russia.

• VS1-002 (investigational), a single-drug AV-HALT emerging from the ViroStatics R&D Drug Discovery
  Drug discovery
  In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which drugs are discovered or designed.In the past most drugs have been discovered either by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by serendipitous discovery...
  
   program. VS002 combines both antiviral and antiproliferative properties in a single molecule.

Anti-cancer

ViroStatics licensed a library of over 300 compounds with both antiviral and anticancer activity from the Università degli Studi di Siena in 2009. Several of these compounds have demonstrated in vivo efficacy against humans tumors in xenographic models as well as activity against imatinib

Imatinib

Imatinib is a drug used to treat certain types of cancer. It is currently marketed by Novartis as Gleevec or Glivec as its mesylate salt, imatinib mesilate . It is used in treating chronic myelogenous leukemia , gastrointestinal stromal tumors and some other diseases...

-resistant Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia , also known as chronic granulocytic leukemia , is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of predominantly myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood...

(CML) carrying the T315I and other mutations.