MicroPhage Demonstrates Rapid Diagnostic Platform Feasibility in Skin and Soft Tissue Infections

PHILADELPHIA--(Business Wire)--
In a presentation at the current General Meeting of the American Society for
Microbiology (ASM) being held in Philadelphia, PA, a simple and inexpensive
developmental diagnostic assay produced by MicroPhage, Inc., www.microphage.com,
was shown to be highly accurate for rapid identification of serious staph
bacterial infections from skin and soft tissue infections.

Thirty three samples from a wide array of body sites were collected from the St.
Mary-Corwin Hospital in Pueblo Colorado. Of the 33, 8 were determined to have
Staphylococcus aureus infections by traditional microbiology methods. Seven of
these samples were rapidly detected by the prototype rapid assay by MicroPhage,
days before these full results were available.

"We were really excited by these early results," said Drew Smith, Ph.D.,
MicroPhage Director of Research and Development. "We essentially took a
prototype in development for our screening test and applied it to these samples.
It demonstrates to us that the platform can easily be adapted to other samples
types, which is very encouraging." The results are so compelling that he
concludes that a 5 hour result time is likely for this simple to use test.

By contrast, today`s physicians do not have any antibiotic testing information
when they prescribe these drugs for suspected infections like these in their
patients. Doing so has been shown to increase antibiotic resistance and make
treating these infections more and more difficult. The typical turn-around for
such a diagnosis is often more than 48 hours. MicroPhage is the first company to
present findings that an easy-to-use platform, similar to that of a pregnancy
test, could hold the answer, through rapid, accurate tests that could help
alleviate the need for antibiotics, or help guide the use of more appropriate
antibiotics in hospitals and other clinical settings.

The company plans further development of the test through 2009 and will enter it
into FDA clinical trials in early 2010. It is planned that the product will be
formatted like its blood culture test, and provide antibiotic susceptibility and
resistance results to determine if the S. aureus present is
methicillin-resistant (MRSA) or sensitive (MSSA), further directing appropriate
therapy. The product is planned to reach the US market later next year.

About MicroPhage

Based in Longmont, Colo. and privately held, MicroPhage, Inc. is working to be a
global leader in developing rapid diagnostics products for bacterial
identification and antibiotic susceptibility/resistance testing. Using its
proprietary bacteriophage-based amplification platform, the company has
developed a patented process that is a product platform for rapid, easy-to-use,
inexpensive diagnostic tests. Its first products, expected in late 2009, will
set a new standard for clinicians in S. aureus identification and antibiotic
susceptibility testing, and are designed to fit the demands of hospitals and
laboratories of all sizes. For further information, go to www.microphage.com.

A Simple and Natural Identification Technology

The MicroPhage system has two incubation tubes for incubating blood culture
specimens. After five hours, the incubated samples are added to two
dipstick-like detectors. One detector shows if the sample is infected with staff
bacteria and the other indicates antibiotic susceptibility of the bacterial
strain.

MicroPhage has adapted a natural biologic process, called bacteriophage
amplification technology, for identifying staph infections as its primary
products. "Phages" are viruses that multiply aggressively when exposed to the
target bacteria. In the identification process, reaction of the bacteriophage
proteins on the test strip indicates the sample is positive for staph bacteria.
For susceptibility analysis, the organism in the sample is challenged with an
antibiotic. Because phages depend on host bacteria for growth, any compound that
kills or inhibits the target bacterium will also prevent phage amplification.
Only resistant strains allow amplification of phage and yield a positive signal
on the detector strip.

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MicroPhage, Inc.
Scott Conlin, 303-319-9882
sconlin@micro-phage.com

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