August 30, 2006

 

NanoViricides Inc presents breakthrough technology at conference
 

 

NanoViricides Inc revealed technology that could boost the effectiveness of former drugs as well as new products that it claimed were capable of dealing with all types of virus. 

 

Dr. Anil Diwan, the Company's President, told scientists a gathering of researchers at the Cambridge Healthcare Institute's conference last week the company now has three nanoviricides , all effective against H5N1, he said.

 

NanoViricides, Inc is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for viral therapy.

 

A NanoViricide is a nanomaterial that contains an encapsulated active pharmaceutical ingredient and targets it to a specific type of virus.

 

NanoViricide drugs are designed to block and dismantle virus particles before they can infect a cell.

 

AviFluCide-I is designed to be specific to H5N1, and FluCide-I is designed to work against all influenzas, whereas FluCide-HP is designed to work against the entire highly pathogenic influenza subgroup.

 

The company derived information from H5N1 preclinical studies recently completed in Vietnam, Dr. Diwan said.

 

Nanoviricides the company has worked on were effective at as low as 5-nanomolar concentration levels. Typically, an early developmental drug that proves effective at concentrations less than 500 nanomolars is considered a strong candidate for FDA approval as an "Investigational New Drug (IND)" applicant.

 

A nanoviricide consists of a ligand (targeting molecule) attached to a core nanomaterial that forms the "viricidal engine" of the assembly.

 

The ligand directs the viricidal engine to find and bind to a specific type of virus. The viricidal engine is capable of neutralising most enveloped viruses. Attaching a ligand to the viricidal engine can generate 50X greater effectiveness compared to the ligand itself, Dr Diwan said. 

 

If so, this is a significant breakthrough as it could resurrect the development of compounds that may have proven marginal or failed earlier.

 

The influenzas form a multi-billion dollar market even without an epidemic, said Eugene Seymour, CEO of the company.