NanoViricides, Inc., reported
today that they are on course with the development of
nanoviricides™ drug candidates against highly pathogenic
avian influenzas (HPAI) including H5N1 bird flu, and common influenza.
“We are now ready to begin animal studies on H5N1 at a
renowned federal agency," said Dr. Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH, CEO of the
Company. Earlier, the Company had delayed these studies in search of
suitable facilities. The work is expected to begin once the contracts
are finalized.
Bird Flu H5N1 continues to spread over ever-widening
geographic regions and is a major cause of concern for potential
pandemic influenza, according to the WHO. This year so far bird flu has
spread into six districts in West Bengal, India, causing 120,000 birds
to be culled in just 5 days, and 194,000 people to be screened for
bird-flu-like symptoms, reports Times of India on January 21, 2008. A
boy died of bird flu in Indonesia, and the H5N1 virus was found as far
away as a Ukrainian village of Rivne and also northern part of Iran,
reports Voice of America. Various research articles have appeared which
make researchers fear the virus could mutate and become significantly
transmissible between humans.
There are currently no effective treatments against H5N1, or
the class of pandemic threatening viruses called HPAI. “The
broad-spectrum FluCide™, and the HPAI-specific
FluCide-HP™, are designed using the virus’s host
cell-binding features that do not change even when the virus
mutates,” says Anil R. Diwan, Ph.D., President of the
Company. This feature would potentially make these two drugs the best
current treatment options for development, says the Company. Vaccines
and Antibodies could lose effectiveness due to mutations. H5N1
resistance to Tamiflu® is well known, and resistance against
other existing same-class (neuraminidase inhibitor) drugs such as
peramivir and possibly Relenza® could occur due to virus
mutations.