Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka Pharmaceutical) announces that its indirect subsidiary A&P Inphatec, LLC (A&P Inphatec), based in California, has commenced the sale in the U.S. of XylPhi-PD™, the first-in-the-world bacteriophage^* curative and preventative treatment for symptoms of Pierce's disease in grapevines.

The bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa (hereinafter Xf), is a plant pathogen known to kill grapevines. Insects of the leafhopper family (Cicadellidae) feed on the sap of vines and infect the vines with Xf, often triggering a vine-to-vine spread. Affected areas have expanded due to warmer temperatures in relatively arid California, a famous region for producing wine where Pierce's disease has caused large-scale damage to vineyards.

In 2007, at the request of Ridge Vineyards, an Otsuka group company that operates vineyards and produces premium wines in California, Otsuka Pharmaceutical initiated a project to develop a product that is effective against Pierce's disease at its own research center in collaboration with Texas A&M AgriLife Research. This research led to the discovery of XylPhi-PD^TM, which is injected directly into vines with a precision-powered injection device, to treat and prevent symptoms of Pierce's disease.

XylPhi-PD^TM was registered in April 2019 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Biopesticide Pollution Prevention Division (BPPD) and is currently registered for use in California on grapevines against Xf. A&P Inphatec conducted trial sales in 2020, mainly in the areas of Napa and Sonoma County, California. From April 2021 sales activities are to be extended to other areas in California, and to areas in Texas and Arizona.

A&P Inphatec was established in August 2018 as a direct subsidiary of Otsuka America, Inc.
For more information, please visit　www.inphatec.com.　

*Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate in their specific host bacteria only. Bacteriophages in XylPhi-PD do not infect human, animal, or plant cells.