WEST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT -- Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 -- NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NNVC) (the "Company") announced today that its stock began trading today on the NYSE MKT National Exchange under its original symbol, NNVC.
In another Company news, our CEO, Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH, is invited to speak at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business today afternoon. His talk will focus on policies that can help accelerate the development of pharmaceuticals against diseases that pharma companies would otherwise not have much interest in, or “orphan drug” development.
Dr. Seymour will discuss the economic incentives associated with orphan drug development, focusing on the importance of the Priority Review Voucher (PRV), and their relevance to the decision-making process of both small and large pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He will illustrate his arguments using the example of DengueCide™, the Company’s nanoviricide drug against dengue, that has been designated an “orphan drug” by the US FDA.
As noted in Monday’s press release, Scott Cutler, Executive Vice President, Head of Global listing, NYSE Eurotext, made the following statement about the Company and the new listing: “We congratulate NanoViricides on their listing with NYSE MKT. Our community ranges across a variety of industries and it is always exciting for a biotech company like NanoViricides to benefit from our platform and further support their research and development.”
The concept of the PRV was initially developed by three professors, David Ridley, Jeff Moe and Henry Grabowski at the Fuqua School of Business of the Duke University. Dr. Ridley invited Dr. Seymour to speak on the importance of economic incentives to help innovative pharmaceutical companies attach higher priorities to drug development programs against “orphan” diseases.
The Priority Review Voucher concept that the professors developed was embraced by the US FDA. Currently, the US FDA’s list of diseases for which no adequate therapy exists that are eligible for a PRV contains about 16 diseases. Dengue is at present the only viral disease on the list. The existence of the PRV was an important factor in the Company’s decision to assign a high priority to its dengue drug development program.
NYSE MKT is considered a premier US equities market for listing and trading of small growth companies. NYSE MKT is a fully integrated trading venue within the NYSE Euronext community and leverages the NYSE's advanced and innovative market model to offer a premier venue for listing and trading the stocks of small companies. The venue utilizes the trading, connectivity and routing technologies of the NYSE platform and offers superior price discovery, superior liquidity and reduced trading volatility. Listed companies benefit from issuer-selected Designated Market Makers (DMM) that utilize world-class NYSE trading systems to discover and improve prices, dampen volatility, add liquidity and enhance value. In addition, NYSE MKT-listed companies gain access to the brand visibility and are eligible for the issuer services enjoyed by the NYSE Euronext community.
NanoViricides, Inc. currently has six drug development pipeline indications and several research programs. The Company is advancing both an injectable drug and an oral drug against Influenzas in IND-enabling studies in its FluCide™ program. The oral FluCide drug is being developed for out-patient influenza cases. The injectable FluCide is being developed for the seriously ill, hospitalized patients with influenza-like illness. Both of these drugs are broad-spectrum, i.e. they are expected to work against most if not all influenza A viruses. The Company believes so because the virus-binding ligand in these drugs mimics the component of the cell receptor known to be used by all influenza viruses in order to gain entry into the cell. Both of these anti-influenza drugs may also be useful for prophylaxis, such as for the protection of health care workers. In addition, the Company has developed several other highly effective nanoviricides. These include HIVCide™, HerpiCide™, DengueCide™, and a broad-spectrum nanoviricide eye drop formulation for the treatment of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), a viral infection of the eye. The Company’s drug programs are based on the Company’s patented “nanoviricide®” platform technology that enables specifically targeting a particular type of virus with a novel mechanism of action. In addition, the Company’s other research and development programs include (a) broad-spectrum nanoviricides against a number of Neglected Tropical Diseases, and (b) its novel ADIF™ ( “Accurate Drug In Field”™ ) technologies which promise a way to attack novel viruses, whether man-made (bioterrorism) or natural (such as SARS), before they can cause a pandemic.