NanoViricides, Inc. provided an update on its influenza program. The company stated that in a highly lethal animal model against an H3N2 Influenza virus strain, very similar to the current dominant influenza strain, the company's oral anti-influenza drug candidate has shown significantly superior efficacy to Tamiflu(R) (oseltamivir). This oral anti-influenza drug candidate and its related injectable drug variant have both shown significantly superior efficacy to Tamiflu against influenza A H1N1 strain in the same animal model.

The H1N1 strain used is of the same type as the 2009 epidemic influenza virus, although not the same strain. The company also announced that a highly optimized floor plan for the cGMP production facility for its nanoviricide(R) drugs is now completed by the design team. The design team has been working together for some time before agreements with the various team members were formalized by the company.

The company has been working on enabling cGMP facilities for its drug candidates in order to proceed further into the FDA regulatory process. Binding to sialic acid on the cell surface is a completely conserved property of all influenza viruses. The avian influenza viruses tend to prefer binding to the a-2,3- variant of sialic acid, whereas those causing disease in humans tend to prefer binding to the a-2,6 variant.

Pigs and some other species serve as 'mixing species' where both the avian and mammalian viruses can grow, and further, avian viruses can mutate to mammalian viruses. The company has reported that its anti-influenza drug candidates have reduced viral loads from tens to hundreds of times lower levels than oseltamivir (Tamiflu(R)), depending upon the particulars of the experiment. The FluCide(TM) oral and injectable drug candidates also protected the lungs of the animals much better than did oseltamivir, indicating a clear benefit.

The protection from influenza virus was clearly reflected in the strong increase in survival time in the FluCide-treated animals as compared to oseltamivir. Mice serve only as a 'test tube' in these studies, since drugs are designed to attack the virus particles directly. Thus these positive results in animal studies are expected to correlate well with the human clinical trials.