NanoViricides’ President Dr. Anil Diwan was Interviewed by Proactive Investors About the Company’s Antiviral Drug Development Against SARS-CoV-2 to Treat COVID-19
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NanoViricides’ President Dr. Anil Diwan was Interviewed by Proactive Investors About the Company’s Antiviral Drug Development Against SARS-CoV-2 to Treat COVID-19
SHELTON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / April 13, 2020 / NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE American:NNVC) (the "Company") a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform (the "Company"), states that its President, Dr. Anil R. Diwan was interviewed by broadcast journalist Christine Corrado of Proactive Investors, a leading, multi-media news organization, investor portal and events management business with offices in New York, Sydney, Toronto, Frankfurt, and London.
The interview took place remotely, with Dr. Diwan and key staff members at the Company's Shelton, CT headquarters, on March 27, 2020. A video transcript of the interview published by Proactive Investors is now available at https://youtu.be/CLfTNbHcMzU and on the Company's website at www.nanoviricides.com.
Key Takeaways from Dr. Diwan's Interview:
The Company has completed the synthesis of a number of nanoviricide drug candidates for testing in just a few weeks after identification of virus-binding ligands. Additionally, the polymer backbone was previously manufactured in multi-kilogram quantities.
The Company has acquired and expanded two different, low-threat circulating coronaviruses in its own BSL2 lab, and has already expanded them to enable testing of drug candidates. One of these coronaviruses, namely NL63, uses the same ACE2 receptor on human cells as SARS-CoV-2, although it does not cause a similar severe disease in humans. This makes it a useful model coronavirus strain for testing nanoviricide drug candidates, relevant for SARS-CoV-2.
If the Company's test candidates are effective against these cell culture studies against coronaviruses, then that would provide a strong rationale that they may be expected to be effective against the current SARS-CoV-2. Presently, the Company does not have any collaboration established for further testing of its drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2. The Company is working to establish such collaborations, and it has done so successfully in the past, on an as-needed basis.
The Company has already successfully developed antiviral drug testing assays based on cell culture infection of certain low-threat coronaviruses viruses in its own BSL2 certified virology lab. Development of an assay to test the effectiveness of a drug candidate is an important milestone in the drug development process. The Company completed this milestone in just a few weeks because of the extensive experience and expertise in medium throughput drug testing antiviral assays development of its Senior Virologist, who was previously at USAMRIID.
Testing of the Company's drug candidates against these BSL2 coronavirus strains is expected to begin shortly in its BSL2 virology lab.
NanoViricides Company COVID-19 Efforts Update Since the Proactive Interview:
Initial testing of the Company's drug candidates against the BSL2 coronaviruses has been successfully completed, and verification assays are currently in progress.
NanoViricides has started scaled up synthesis of certain components, in parallel to further testing, as the Company anticipates moving to the next step of drug development.
Honorable U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal visited the Company's Shelton facility on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, toured our manufacturing facility, and has pledged support to the Company's efforts, as with other COVID-19 efforts by other Connecticut companies. The Company has previously described this visit in a press release dated April 6, 2020.
Dr. Diwan participated as a panelist on a virtual panel discussion entitled, "COVID-19: Current Pipeline and Innovations for Therapeutics and Vaccine", organized by BioCT, an association of biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses in Connecticut, on April 8, 2020. The panel was moderated by Dr. Mostafa Analoui, Executive Director, Venture Development & Technology Incubation Program (TIP), Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. A transcript of the panel discussion is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpTP_wnEZKw&feature=youtu.be .
About NanoViricides
NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. Our lead drug candidate is NV-HHV-101 with its first indication as dermal topical cream for the treatment of shingles rash. The Company is also developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others. The Company's technology is based on broad, exclusive, sub-licensable, field licenses to drugs developed in these areas from TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The Company does not currently have a license to the coronavirus field, however, TheraCour has not denied any licenses to the Company. The Company typically begins the licensing process only after demonstrating effectiveness of some candidates in optimization stage.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in preclinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products.
As with any drug development efforts, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time. There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in establishing the necessary collaborations, although the Company has been successful at establishing necessary collaborations for its drug programs in the past.
FDA refers to US Food and Drug Administration. IND application refers to "Investigational New Drug" application. CMC refers to "Chemistry, Manufacture, and Controls".
