ABOUT US

Our story began back in 2007 with a letter sent by Mr. Paul Draper, who at the time was CEO and Chief Winemaker of the historic Ridge Vineyards in California. Mr. Draper is currently the Chairman of the Board at Ridge Vineyards. Paul wrote to Mr. Akihiko Otsuka, the former Chairman of Otsuka Pharmaceutical in Japan, about a major grapevine killing disease called “Pierce’s Disease”, caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. Paul explained how it was damaging Ridge’s valuable Vitis vinifera grape vines. In fact, 95% of wine grapes grown (almost 100% for high quality wines) in the world are Vitus vinifera and these grapes are vulnerable to the pathogen.

Paul asked Mr. Otsuka to help identify and develop a bacteriophage (phage) treatment that would control the disease, since a phage based treatment would be organic and environmentally harmless. The Microbiological Research Institute at Otsuka, which specializes in infectious disease research and drug development established a new phage project to develop a solution for Ridge Vineyards that could be used in organic grape production. The “A” and “P” in our name stands for Akihiko and Paul who envisioned, initiated and fostered the project. Our initial goal was to develop an effective phage treatment for Ridge Vineyards. Mr.Otsuka and Mr.Draper knew that Pierce’s Disease was widespread in California and that many winegrowers faced the same challenge as Ridge Vineyards. We subsequently decided to expand the project to meet this need.

In a joint effort, the Center for Phage Technology, part of Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. developed a phage cocktail that is effective against Xylella fastidiosa. After conducting various efficacy trials, the phage product, XylPhi-PD™, was officially approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) as the world’s first effective therapeutic and preventive treatment for Pierce’s Disease in 2019. XylPhi-PD™ is now available for commercial sale in California, and soon to be available in other states in the USA in 2021.

In August 2018, we established, A&P Inphatec, LLC in California to continue to provide and develop new solutions to existing and emerging plant diseases.

Although we started with Pierce’s Disease, we are expanding to utilize phage technology to develop novel solutions for agriculture, the environment, and human and animal health, worldwide.

A&P Inphatec, LLC is an indirect subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd., which contains more than 180 companies, with over 47,000 employees, in 30 countries worldwide. The Otsuka Group, whose origins date back to 1921, aims to contribute to the health of people around the world under the corporate philosophy, “Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide”.