Amir SohailKNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 22, 2026 (ZM NEWSWIRE) — VisiRose, Inc. (“VisiRose” or the “Company”), the clinical-stage ophthalmology subsidiary of Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Provectus”) (OTCQB: PVCT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing pharmaceutical grade rose bengal sodium (“RBS”) active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) as a platform therapeutic, today announced it has been selected to present at the Emerging Company Showcase at ESCRS iNovation® Day 2026, to be held September 11th at Excel London in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1991, the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (“ESCRS”) is one of the field’s leading professional bodies, with more than 7,000 members across 130 countries. Now in its fifth year, iNovation® Day runs alongside the ESCRS Annual Congress and is convened to bring emerging technologies before the clinicians and industry leaders who shape corneal and refractive care in Europe.
VisiRose was selected to present during Session #5, “Keys to Expanding Refractive and Corneal Markets” of the ESCRS iNovation® Day 2026 Program. The accepted showcase, program number ECS05, is titled “Rose Bengal Photodynamic Antimicrobial Therapy (RB-PDAT): A Resistance-Proof, Broad-Spectrum Treatment for Infectious Keratitis and Corneal Disease — Developed at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.” A copy of the Company’s Emerging Company Showcase application submission may be found here.
Why RB-PDAT matters
Infectious keratitis (also known as infectious corneal ulcer or corneal opacity) affects an estimated 5 to 10 million people each year and is a leading cause of preventable corneal blindness worldwide. As bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral pathogens grow increasingly drug-resistant, clinicians are more often left with corneal transplant surgery as the fallback.
VisiRose is developing a therapy whose mechanism of action is designed to avoid the resistance pathways that undermine conventional antibiotics and, in doing so, to eliminate the need for surgery. The Company estimates the global market for RBS–based ophthalmic therapies at more than $20 billion.
How RB-PDAT works
RB-PDAT is a drug-device combination that pairs a formulation of Provectus’s pharmaceutical grade RBS API with targeted green-light activation. On the corneal surface, the activated RBS molecule generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), including singlet oxygen and superoxide, that inactivate bacteria, fungi, and other pathogens. Because this mechanism is physical and oxidative, RB-PDAT is designed to remain effective across a broad range of organisms and to avoid the mutation-driven resistance that limits conventional antimicrobials.
Dominic Rodrigues, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Director of VisiRose, and President and Vice Chairman of Provectus, said, “Pathogens evolve around drugs because drugs give them a single target to evolve around. RB-PDAT doesn’t offer one. That is a fundamentally different way to approach corneal infection, and ESCRS is the right room in which to argue it.”
Rose bengal (“RB”) has more than a century of ophthalmic use. In 1914, Römer, Cobb, and Löhlein reported RB combatting ocular pneumococcal infection. In 1919, Kleefeld established its use for corneal staining. In 1933, Sjögren introduced RB to detect keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Its application in diagnosing ocular surface disease, dry eye, and corneal ulcers continued in various formulations.
That history was largely forgotten until the 2010s, when the Ophthalmic Biophysics Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (“BPEI”), ranked the #1 eye hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, began innovating RB-PDAT as a potential solution for severe progressive infectious keratitis.
Evidence to date
Investigational therapy RB-PDAT is supported by more than a decade of clinical use and preclinical research, including 39 peer-reviewed publications and numerous poster presentations (i.e., at the annual meetings of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group) to date by BPEI and other U.S. and international medical institutions.
More than 280 patients have been treated for infectious keratitis with RB-PDAT, including at and/or in clinical trials sponsored by BPEI, Stanford University (“Stanford”) and University of California San Francisco (“UCSF”) (USA), Aravind Eye Care System (“Aravind”) and L V Prasad Eye Institute (India), Universidade Federal de São Paulo (“UNIFESP”) (Brazil), and Instituto de Oftalmología FAP Conde de Valenciana (Mexico).
In the REAGIR Phase 3 trial (NCT05110001), a 330-patient double-masked, sham-controlled study of smear or culture positive fungal or acanthamoeba keratitis or smear and culture negative corneal ulcers, a single treatment cycle of adjunctive RB-PDAT did not meet its primary visual-acuity endpoint versus standard of care natamycin in the overall population. In the Fusarium subgroup, however, the trial’s largest and most statistically powered cohort, results were directionally favorable, the first positive signal versus natamycin in nearly 50 years but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.1). REAGIR was sponsored by UCSF, included Aravind, Stanford, UNIFESP, and the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (“NEI”) as collaborators, and was funded by NEI.
Presentation details
- Event: ESCRS iNovation® Day 2026
- Date: Friday, September 11, 2026
- Venue: ICC Auditorium, Excel London, United Kingdom
- Session: #5 — Keys to Expanding Refractive and Corneal Markets
- Presenter: Dominic Rodrigues, Acting Chief Executive Officer, VisiRose
About VisiRose
VisiRose is a clinical-stage biotechnology company established as a subsidiary of Provectus Biopharmaceuticals licensing intellectual property from the University of Miami, developing ocular therapies for infectious keratitis. Its work applies Provectus’s proprietary synthetic small molecule rose bengal sodium to infectious keratitis research from the Miller School of Medicine’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and Ophthalmic Biophysics Center. For more information, please visit www.visirose.com.
About Provectus
Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of immunotherapy medicines based on rose bengal sodium, a first-in-class synthetic small molecule from the halogenated xanthene family. The Company’s clinical programs span oncology, dermatology, and ophthalmology, with additional proof-of-concept and early discovery programs in hematology, wound healing, infectious diseases, tissue repair, and neurodegeneration. For more information, visit www.provectusbio.com.
Forward Looking Statements
The information in this press release may include “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, relating to the business of Provectus and its affiliates, which are based on currently available information and current assumptions, expectations, and projections about future events and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as “aim,” “likely,” “outlook,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “budget,” “plan,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “project,” “projection,” “predict,” “potential,” “targeting,” “intend,” “can,” “could,” “might,” “should,” “believe,” and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook.
The safety and efficacy of the agents and/or uses under investigation have not been established. There is no guarantee that the agents will receive health authority approval or become commercially available in any country for the uses being investigated or that such agents as products will achieve any particular revenue levels.
Due to the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions inherent in forward-looking statements, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof or as of the date specifically specified herein, and Provectus undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Risks, uncertainties, and assumptions include those discussed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those described in Item 1A of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2026.
Contacts:
Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
Heather Raines, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
hraines@pvct.com
(866) 594-5999
Investor Relations & Media
Susan Xu
sxu@allianceadvisors.com
(778) 323-0959
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