NanoViricides: Three bird flu and influenza drugs now in pipeline

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Aug. 29 - NanoViricides, Inc. said Tuesday that it has three nanoviricides that are effective against H5N1, or avian flu, entering further detailed studies in hopes of filing Investigational New Drug applications.

AviFluCide-I is designed to be specific to H5N1, FluCide-I is designed to work against all influenzas and FluCide-HP is designed to work against the entire highly pathogenic influenza subgroup that poses continuously re-emerging and changing pandemic threats, according to a company news release.

The company said it revealed details of its work at a gathering of researchers at the Cambridge Healthcare Institute's conference, "Novel Vaccines: Bridging Research, Development and Production," in Boston last week.

Highlighting new information gleaned from H5N1 preclinical studies recently completed in Vietnam, the company said many of its nanoviricide candidates were effective at as low as 5-nanomolar concentration levels in cell culture experiments.

Typically, an early developmental drug that proves effective at concentrations less than 500 nanomolars is considered a strong candidate for Food and Drug Administration approval as an Investigational New Drug applicant, the company said.

A nanoviricide is made by attaching a ligand (targeting molecule) 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.

NanoViricides is a West Haven, Conn., development-stage biopharmaceutical company.

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