| The pharmaceutical industry is subject to intense competition and rapid technological change. Numerous pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical companies, academic institutions, governmental agencies and other public and private research organizations are conducting research and developing new drug candidates designed to use immune mechanisms to treat infections. Further competition is expected from companies developing new antibiotics and other anti-infective substances. Several companies are or have been developing products for treating or preventing cryptosporidial diarrhea. Certain of those companies are attempting to use antibody products developed from milk of dairy cows to prevent and treat gastrointestinal diseases. IgX believes that the Avian Technology is superior to the bovine products for two reasons: (i) the Avian Technology provides a more stable source of cryptosporidium hyperimmune and (ii) the antibody activity achieved by IgX is superior to those developed through bovine processes. Using a different technology, Shaman Pharmaceuticals Inc. also competes with IgX's drug candidate, IGX-CPL3, for the treatment of diarrhea. Shaman has developed a product derived from an extract of the croton plant found in Latin America and seeks to treat the underlying cellular mechanism for diarrhea by blocking chloride secretion but does not treat the infection. IGX-CPL3 by contrast seeks to eradicate the C. parvum parasite by providing polyclonal antibodies specific to C. parvum that bind to the pathogen and prevent the parasite from attaching to and invading intestinal epithelial cells. The Company believes these antibodies should bind to the parasite when it moves from cell to cell following its reproductive cycle. As the parasite should be prevented from invading a cell, it should die and be swept from the intestine. The reproductive cycle of the parasite should thus be interrupted and the infection should terminate over time. |