VIRxSYS Corporation is reported as having closed operations in 2012. The firm had been a privately held biotech company using technology first developed , and exclusively licensed, from The Johns Hopkins University. VIRxSYS has developed a gene delivery system (a vector) from a human lentivirus for the treatment of serious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer. With the successful development of numerous genetic and therapeutic payloads, there have been great promises of genetic medicine. However, most of these promises were unfulfilled because of the medical industry's inability to develop a transport system to deliver the genetic and therapeutic payloads into targeted cells efficiently, reproducibly and permanently. The VIRxSYS mission had beens to develop gene-based therapies using its proprietary lentiviral vector-based delivery system. The first application of the Company's novel gene delivery technology has been for the treatment of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After a successful first-in-class Phase I clinical trial that demonstrated the safety profile of the Company's product VRX496, this new ex-vivo anti-HIV treatment using a lentivector is currently being evaluated in the first and only Phase II clinical trial approved by the FDA involving a lentiviral vector. The Company's lentiviral vector platform is an ideal delivery system for the effective treatment of disease. The Company's vector technology is also being investigated for applications in anti-cancer therapies and for the treatment of other various life-threatening diseases. The Company has developed a proprietary HIV-based lentiviral vector platform for delivery of genetic therapeutic payloads. Its first product, VRX496, for treatment of HIV, may offer the patients a long-term alternative to antiretroviral drug regimens. Traditional drug regimens are toxic and produce drug resistance strains of HIV. The Company believes that its therapy is non-toxic and solves the resistance issue thus enabling patients to live drug free. This has the potential to represent a significant improvement in the quality of life for people with HIV compared to that with the current antiretroviral drug treatments. The Company's manufacturing capabilities are unparalleled in terms of large-scale clinical grade vector production and cell processing (including purification of vector, and transduction and expansion of patient cells). The Company has developed a stable cell line, which will make clinical grade vector production more compatible with commercialization. The Company has several therapies in preclinical development that apply the Company's technology to the treatment of other diseases, such as cancer.
