Phoenix-Mesa, AZ (1888PressRelease)
October 26, 2007 - MRSA, a form of Staph infection, recently became the contributor to more deaths than AIDS. Antibiotics are not effective when used to treat many bacterial infections, including MRSA, which has contributed to an estimated 18,000 deaths nationally every year, as widely reported earlier this month.
Acting on a new business model, Phillips Company announced on October 26 that it has become the world's first not-for-profit company to manufacture new anti-MRSA products that kill MRSA bacteria without the use of antibiotics.
A staph infection often begins as a skin lesion that refuses to heal normally. “We have a new solution,” said a spokesman for Phillips Company. “A simple topical application, much like a soap, will kill MRSA bacteria on contact.” StaphWash, the first anti-MRSA product to be manufactured by the company has already been developed by Phillips & Co.
Phillips Company is the world’s first non-profit manufacturing company whose aim is to "identify low-cost health solutions that are not being developed, match these solutions with very important skin diseases and take these solutions to the people who need them." Many simple low-cost and effective health-care solutions are not available because pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to put them through clinical trials necessary to get regulatory approval. Sometimes this is because the low-cost solution can not be patented or because it costs millions of dollars for clinical trials needed to get regulatory approval.
“We have a mandate to do this and take it to the people,” said a company spokesman. “We will develop and manufacture low-cost and effective health care solutions. Many already-developed solutions do not require regulatory approval. When research leads to solutions that require costly regulatory approval, we plan to license the technology, at low cost, to other companies having an interest in conducting clinical trials needed to get regulatory approval.”
Phillips Company is the new name for Phillips & Co. Until now, the company has operated as a for-profit company. Like its predecessor, Phillips Company operates as a division of a limited-liability corporation. The company is financed by private capital and there are no plans for seeking contributions or investment capital. The company is under no pressure to make a profit for investors and shareholders. Revenue from sales will be used to fund research, manufacture new products and take them to the people through a growing group of distributors and strategic alliances.
Phillips Company was inspired by the formation of a San Francisco-based nonprofit, Institute for OneWorld Health; an organization that is partnering with foundations, for-profit drug companies, NGOs, and governments around the world to bring neglected drugs to market. Both companies were formed as nonprofits because the pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars developing medical drugs to cure the ailments of wealthy Westerners, but very little to treat the diseases that kill millions of people every year in the US and in the developing world.
OneWorld was the first non-profit pharmaceutical company. Phillips Company is the first nonprofit manufacturing company to produce and sell low-cost anti-MRSA products. The new business model for the company is described online at http://PhillipsCompany.4t.com
