Why does Zirus think effective drugs can be developed to its target platform?

Almost all drugs outside of infectious diseases target host targets. Host targets for the treatment of infectious disease was validated with the approval of the HIV drug maraviroc. The odds of success are good because Zirus has discovered hundreds of host targets to prevent viruses from replicating.

Since the targets are human and not the traditional viral targets, is toxicity an added concern?

Toxicity is a concern for all drugs to all targets. Zirus has reduced the chance its targets will be toxic by using the gene trap, a positive selection for targets less toxic to cells. In addition, the large numbers of available host targets makes selection of the best targets possible.

How can drug targets be protected?

Patents can be obtained on inhibiting viral replication by blocking a particular target. Patents can also be obtained on screening drugs to treat viral infection using the targets.

Are there any approved drugs that target a human gene product to treat viral infection?

Yes, maraviroc, an approved drug for the treatment of HIV marketed by Pfizer, targets a host cell protein called CCR5. Antiviral Therapeutics, A Jain PharmaBiotech Report, predicts that maraviroc could have sales of $300 million by 2013 and may reach $1 billion mark by 2018.

Do you plan to discover and develop drugs to your targets yourselves?

Yes, however, given the number of targets we own, we feel we need to partner with drug companies to most effectively discover and develop drugs to our targets.

Why is BioDefense interested in the Zirus platform?

They naturally are interested in our platform to develop broad spectrum antivirals (Zirus Antivirotics™). Such drugs would potentially be able to anticipate any virus engineered by terrorists.

How expensive is your discovery platform?

The gene trap is extremely efficient and cost effective. Zirus has a rich and rapidly expanding patent portfolio with relatively low overhead.

What is the company really good at?

Using its efficient patented techniques to find, validate, and protect novel host targets to block viruses.

Why do you think the Zirus targets may be less susceptible to viral resistance?

Small changes to the virus can create resistance to conventional antiviral drugs. Drugs developed to Zirus host targets would not interact directly with the virus. Thus, the virus would have the more difficult task of mutating to use different cellular proteins to avoid drugs developed to Zirus targets.