SHELTON, CONNECTICUT -- Wednesday, April 29, 2020 -- NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE Amer.: NNVC) (the "Company"), a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, today announced that the Company's presentation with an update of its drug development programs for the treatment of Shingles and for COVID-19 made at the Planet MicroCap Showcase 2020 on April 22nd is now available for viewing. Anil R. Diwan, PhD, President and Executive Chairman of the Company, presented this Corporate Update.
The archived presentation is now available for on-demand playback by accessing the following link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2059/34392
The archived presentation has the full audio track linked to the slides. There was a technical error whereby the slides were not changing during the live presentation. Therefore, the Company encourages people to visit the archived presentation.
Key takeaways from the presentation are as follows.
COVID-19 Update:
• The Company has drug candidates that were highly successful in cell culture studies against multiple coronaviruses.
• The observed broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus activity of these drug candidates provides confidence that even as the virus mutates, the selected nanoviricide drug would continue to be effective against it.
• The Company's technology goes well beyond antibodies in attacking the virus particle. Whereas an antibody binds to the virus only at two points, a nanoviricide is designed to bind to the virus at several points, like a nano-scale "Velcro" tape, and further to encapsulate the virus, thereby disabling it from infecting a cell.
• Viruses can escape antibodies due to genomic changes including mutations. However, a virus continues to bind to the same cellular receptor with the same "footprint". A nanoviricide is designed by attempting to mimic this footprint, and therefore, it is expected that it would continue to be effective in spite of changes in the virus.
• A nanoviricide is designed to act like a "Venus-fly-Trap" for viruses.
• The Company is anticipating a collaboration to enable testing against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
• The Company has worked on developing an animal model to test anti-coronavirus effectiveness in vivo using a model coronavirus that binds to the same ACE2 ("angiotensin convertase enzyme 2") receptor as SARS-CoV-2, namely human coronavirus NL-63 (hCoV-NL63). The Company anticipates using this animal model to obtain indications of effectiveness of the nanoviricide test drug candidates against the model coronavirus in vivo.
Shingles Candidate IND Update:
• The Company's first IND application for the use of NV-HHV-101 Skin Cream for Shingles Rash treatment is being prepared by us and is being reviewed by the Company's regulatory consultants.
• The Company is currently working on establishing collaborations with clinical regulatory consultants and is evaluating clinical site selections.
• The Company has developed a preliminary clinical plan and is preparing the more detailed clinical plan to be included in the IND application.
The Company is developing broad-spectrum drugs against coronaviruses by developing mimics of the ACE2 receptor to which SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, hCoV-NL-63 and possibly some other coronaviruses bind. The Company has previously developed a broad-spectrum anti-herpesvirus drug candidate. This candidate, originally developed to be active against HSV-1, the virus that causes cold sores, was found to be effective against HSV-2, the virus that causes genital ulcers, and also against VZV, the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles. Of these, HSV-1 and HSV-2 are known to bind to the HVEM ("herpesvirus entry mediator") cellular receptor, which the Company mimicked to produce the drug candidates against herpesviruses. It is not definitively known whether VZV binds to HVEM. NV-HHV-101 is the Company's lead drug candidate that has completed IND-enabling studies, and is ready for human clinical trials, once the IND process is completed.
NanoViricides is one of a few biopharma companies that has its own cGMP-compliant manufacturing facility. The Company intends to produce its drugs for clinical trials in this facility. The Company has the capability to produce sufficient drug for about 1,000 patients in a single batch of production, depending upon dosage. This production capacity is anticipated to be sufficient for first-in-human use in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as well as for the anticipated clinical trials of NV-HHV-101.