NanoViricides President Dr. Diwan Invited to Present a Seminar at the Center for Biological Physics
NanoViricides President Dr. Diwan Invited to Present a Seminar at the Center for Biological Physics and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA
WEST HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC) (the "Company") announced today that its President, Dr. Anil Diwan, has been invited to present a seminar at the University of California, Los Angeles. This seminar will be hosted by the Center for Biological Physics, jointly with the California NanoSystems Institute. The seminar is scheduled for Friday, 22nd of March.
"I am honored to have this opportunity to discuss our work with eminent biophysicists that are researching the interactions and structural stability of viruses," said Anil Diwan, PhD, President of the Company, adding, "Biophysics is the key to understanding our approach to develop nanoviricides®, our novel biomimetic agents designed to destroy viruses."
Dr. Diwan's talk is entitled "Designing a Nanoviricide ® - Biophysics is the Key".
A "nanoviricide ®", is a biomimetic decoy designed to fool a virus particle into binding to it and thereby capturing the virus particle and rendering it harmless. It is constructed by chemically attaching virus-binding ligands to a polymeric micelle. Biophysics is of prime importance in designing these structures. The biomimetic ligands tend to have poor energies of interaction with the virus particle per ligand, yet a large number of ligands enable a successful interaction with the virus particle. Additionally, the nanoviricide competes with cells for binding to the virus particle, and must provide a substantially more efficient interaction than the cell-virus interaction, in order to achieve a therapeutic effect. The nanoviricide also must be able to exercise its effect in the biological matrix, be it in the bloodstream, plasma, mucosa, or other extracellular spaces. Further, it should have minimal undesirable interaction with the matrix and host cells so that sufficient material is available for clearing out a fulminant viral infection from a patient's body. In addition, the nanoviricide needs to be able to distribute itself within the body, across various barriers, so that it can reach the spaces where the virus particles are present. NanoViricides, Inc. has demonstrated that highly effective antiviral treatments can be created against a large number of viruses, despite these design challenges. The challenges and opportunities for understanding the behavior of virus-nanoviricide interactions, and the results from studies of nanoviricides development against various viruses such as influenza, HIV, Herpesvirus, adenoviruses, Dengue viruses, will be discussed.
The first ever orally active nanomedicine has been developed by NanoViricides, Inc. This oral anti-influenza drug candidate has shown very high bioavailability. NanoViricides also has an injectable anti-influenza drug in development towards clinical studies for serious cases of influenza. A pre-IND meeting with the FDA has helped the Company build its FluCide™ anti-influenza therapeutics program towards human clinical trials. Both the oral and injectable anti-influenza drug candidates have shown significant superiority over oseltamivir (Tamiflu®) in highly lethal animal model studies. Both drug candidates have shown strong activity against multiple, unrelated influenza types including H1N1 and H3N2, suggesting that they indeed have broad-spectrum effectiveness against most if not all influenza viruses. An H3N2 influenza virus was responsible for the 2012-2013 severe influenza epidemic in the USA. An H1N1 influenza virus was responsible for the worldwide influenza pandemic in 2009.
A single course treatment for out-patients is a highly sought after goal in influenza therapeutics. During the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic, approximately 61 million cases of out-patient influenza were estimated in the USA alone.
In the USA alone, there are approximately 300,000 severe influenza cases that require hospitalization every year resulting in approximately 40,000 deaths. Expert physician advice suggests that the dosage form should be a high strength solution suitable for "piggy-back" incorporation into the standard IV fluid supplement system that is commonly used in hospitalized patients. Since current influenza treatments have limited effectiveness in these patients because of the severity of the infection and the stage of progression, there is a significant unmet medical need for the treatment of hospitalized influenza patients, which include immunocompromised patients.
The market size for anti-influenza drugs is currently estimated to be approximately $4-$7 billion worldwide. The Company believes that if its FluCide™ drugs become available, the influenza drug market size could expand substantially.
NanoViricides has also shown that its drug candidates against HIV/AIDS, even while being used as a single agent, had effectiveness equivalent to a triple drug HAART cocktail therapy in the standard humanized SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse model. Further, viral load suppression continued, even after the nanoviricide drug treatment was stopped, for at least 4 weeks from last dosage, in contrast to current drugs which require daily therapy. This mouse model possesses human lymphocytes and results from this model are known to correlate well with human clinical studies. The Company believes that its HIVCide™ drug candidate will provide a "Functional Cure" of HIV/AIDS. A functional cure means that all anti-HIV and related medications can be discontinued until a new resurgence of the virus results from awakening of some latent reservoirs, which can take several months to several years.
NanoViricides has previously reported that its project for enabling clinical scale drug product cGMP capability has reached a new milestone with the commencement of renovation of the facility at 1 Controls Drive in Shelton, CT. The renovation project is estimated to be completed towards the end of this year.
The Company is thus well poised for moving forward towards clinical studies of its anti-influenza drugs. The other drugs are expected to follow on as they progress further. The Company estimates that it is targeting a market size of over $40 Billion worldwide with its rich drug pipeline.
NanoViricides, Inc.(www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for viral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. The Company is developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.
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 pre-clinical 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.
NanoViricides, Inc.
Amanda Schuon, 310-550-7200
info@nanoviricides.com
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