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news.Aphios Corporation has formed a subsidiary, Amyxa Pharmaceuticals, which will focus on the discovery and development of drugs from marine microorganisms and terrestrial plants that are active and protective against different strains of influenza including bird flu.
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Amyxa will screen a unique library of diverse marine microorganisms, isolated from normal to extremeophilic environments in US territorial waters, and medicinal plants to discover novel anti-influenza drugs.
According to the company, it has already identified several marine microorganism fractions active against influenza A in cytoprotection assays, and has also discovered an anti-influenza supercritical fluid fraction of a medicinal plant that contains potent anticancer compounds.
“Nature is an excellent source of novel anti-influenza drugs since, over the last three decades covering all diseases, countries and sources, 52% of the 1,031 new chemical entities approved were based on natural products,” said the company in a statement.