WEST HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC) (the "Company") announced today that its President, Dr. Anil Diwan, will lead the Section 1, Designing Nanomedicines, with Dr. Mostafa Analoui of the Livingston Group. In addition, Dr. Randall Barton, the Companys Chief Scientific Officer, will lead Section 2, Preclinical Pharmacology, with Dr. Benjamin Yerxa of Liquidia Technologies. These sections are part of the Symposium on Nanomedicines: Charting a Roadmap to Commercialization, which is divided into five sections. The Symposium is being held at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, MD, on the 6th and 7th of March. Section 1 is scheduled for tomorrow, March 6th, at 10:0 am, and Section 2 follows the same day at 11:30am.
The section 1 on Designing Nanomedicines is organized to provide a sampling of the multi-faceted nanomedicine technologies and their current and future applications. Panel presenters include: Professor Philip S. Low, Purdue University, Professor Edith Mathiowitz, Brown University, Professor Justin Hanes, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Uma Prabhakar, Office of Cancer Nanotechnology Research at NCI-NIH, and Dr. Frank Bedu-Addo, PDS Biotechnologies, in addition to Dr. Diwan and Dr. Analoui. The panelists will briefly present design aspects of their respective work in nanomedicines and then discuss several key questions that should be addressed in developing novel nanomedicines against diseases that currently have no good drugs.
Dr. Diwan will focus on the questions of how to design antiviral biomimetic nanomedicines, as exemplified by nanoviricides, how important is the direct, zip-code-like active targeting for such drugs, the Companys success in developing the first ever orally active nanomedicine (oral FluCide anti-influenza drug candidate), success in achieving broad-spectrum effectiveness, successful design of ocular delivery, and success in achieving long, sustained, in-vivo effectiveness, as exemplified by the Companys anti-HIV as well as anti-Influenza drug candidates. The sustained effect may enable single dose therapy for influenza and other acute viral illnesses. In addition, this sustained effect property should result in strong patient benefits for HIV/AIDS patients by reducing the number of times the drug needs to be taken, to perhaps as little as once-a-week.
A single course treatment for out-patients is a highly sought after goal in influenza therapeutics. In addition, broad-spectrum effectiveness against most, if not all, influenza viruses is very important because the influenza A virus changes rapidly every season. During the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, approximately 61 million cases of out-patient influenza were estimated in the USA alone.
The Companys anti-influenza clinical drug candidate is expected to be effective against a majority of strains and types of influenzas including novel epidemic influenza strains such as the one encountered in 2009-2010 (so called swine flu); seasonal flu such as H1N1, H3N2; highly pathogenic types such as H7N and H9N; as well as the highly lethal type, so called bird flu or H5N1. All influenza viruses use the same common receptor to bind to human cells. Therefore the Company believes that its influenza drug candidate should work against most of the influenza viruses. The Company is also developing an oral anti-influenza drug, NV-INF-2, that is expected to become the drug of choice against influenza when it becomes available, opening up a large world-wide market with billions of cases per year.
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.
The Company is now well poised for moving forward towards clinical studies of its injectable anti-influenza drug, and the oral drug is expected to follow therafter. The Companys other four commercially important drugs (HIVCide, HerpeCide, DengueCide, and Antiviral Eye Drops, 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.
About NanoViricides:
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.
Original post:
NanoViricides to Lead Sessions at the Symposium on Nanomedicines - Roadmap to Commercialization, in Rockville, MD ...