NanoViricides Inc. (NNVC)

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In Iowa, one of the largest U.S. egg processors has started to buy foreign supplies for the first time. Elsewhere in the Midwest, a free-range egg producer says it may build automatic car washes to scour vehicles accessing its 60 farms. And nationally, agricultural workers are being urged to get flu shots.

Less than six months after the country’s worst-ever outbreak of avian influenza killed 48 million birds and cost taxpayers almost $1 billion, the American poultry industry is remaking itself to prepare for the likely return of the disease. The virus thrives in chilly weather and is carried across the country by wild birds that are just now beginning to migrate south.
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http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2015/10/05/266119.htm

Report finds $1.2 billion in Iowa avian flu damage

Iowa took an economic hit of about $1.2 billion stemming from the death of more than 30 million hens and 1.5 million turkeys because of avian flu this past spring, according to a report commissioned by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) released yesterday.

In addition, H5 avian flu affected thousands of poultry in multiple outbreaks in both Palestine and Nigeria.

Iowa study: 8,400 jobs lost

The Iowa study, conducted by Decision Innovation Solutions of Urbandale, Iowa, found that the avian flu outbreaks around the state—mostly caused by H5N2—resulted in 8,444 lost jobs, many of which will not be recovered.

It also noted an impact of $427 million in lost wages in addition to the jobs lost, as well as about $145 million in lost taxes. The firm estimated the total economic loss at $1.2 billion. The outbreaks affected the egg, chicken, and turkey industries in the state.

In May, Minnesota and Iowa experts put the total loss for the two states at around $1 billion, but several H5N2 outbreaks occurred in both states after that. Minnesota lost more than 9 million poultry to the virus, mostly turkeys. Nationwide, about 50 million birds died because of the outbreaks.

"Many layer operations affected by the outbreak expect to take 18-24 months before reaching pre-outbreak production levels," the report said. "Egg producers able to sell eggs, as well as consumers, can expect to be in an elevated price environment for at least the next 6-9 months. Turkey producers are predicted to be out of production for approximately 30 weeks."

"It's really astounding that we could lose half of our poultry flock in a couple of months," said Dave Miller, the IFBF's director of research and commodity services, according to a Des Moines Register story yesterday. "Recovery from this outbreak, which devastated Iowa egg and poultry farms, will not be swift."

The report concludes, "In addition to the lost revenue to producers, [highly pathogenic avian flu] also has many other adverse consequences on economic activity up and downstream such as lost business for feed suppliers, veterinarians, transportation, financial institutions, and decreases in government tax revenues."

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http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/08/report-finds-12-billion-iowa-avian-flu-damage

Bird flu vaccine, under development, divides U.S. poultry industry
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Many countries have a strict policy of refusing to accept meat from nations using a vaccine because it can be difficult to discern through testing whether birds were infected with an active virus or were vaccinated, said James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

Even during the current outbreak which affected 15 states, about 10 trade partners banned poultry imports from the entire U.S., Sumner said.

Vilsack said it's uncertain when a vaccine would be ready for large-scale production. Even once stockpiled, a vaccination program would not begin until the USDA, consulting with affected states, decided it was necessary to control an outbreak.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-vaccine-developed-for-chickens/

About NanoViricides

NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral 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...

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How fast could the Clinical Trials in Australia be?

"by the way, I'm sure that when you think human trials for drugs you think of hundreds of millions of dollars and years of time, well in this case because the disease only lasts a week, two weeks,...that it is possible to complete human trials in the space of a few short months...four parts to the human trials" ~ Dr. Eugene Seymour, CEO Nanoviricides, Inc.

...then on the CEO letter he went to explain how would this be possible:

The number of patients that need to be enrolled in a clinical trial depends upon how good the drug is. If the drug effect is very easily separated from the placebo, and more so, from the standard of care, then the trial would require fewer patients to reach the clinical end point of determining that the drug is indeed effective or superior, as the case may be. Therefore we believe, based on the very strong efficacy observed in our animal studies, that our influenza clinical trials will be short, and will be relatively inexpensive.

http://www.nanoviricides.com/2014-ceo-letter.pdf

What a Bad Flu Season Could Cost the U.S. Economy
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The resulting misery for millions of Americans is also lousy news for the economy. Flu incurs direct costs, such as the price of medical treatment, and indirect costs, such as lost productivity when workers stay home sick. There's also the cost of lost life: Influenza kills between 3,000 and 49,000 people in the U.S. each year, generally older people, young children, or people with medical conditions such as lung or heart disease that make them vulnerable to complications. The CDC recommends that everyone (except infants less than six months old) get vaccinated, especially those considered high-risk because of other health conditions.
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Tallying the total cost of flu is difficult. In a 2007 article published in the journal Vaccine, CDC researchers put the total economic burden at $87 billion annually, in 2003 dollars, counting a statistical measure that puts a dollar value on lost life. Among the costs: 3.1 million days patients spend in hospitals, 10 times as many doctors visits, and 44 million days of missed work. The estimates come with a high level of uncertainty, though: Researchers calculated the total cost in a range from $47 billion to $150 billion a year. The CDC is updating these numbers, but there's no telling when they'll be ready.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-10/flu-what-a-bad-influenza-season-could-cost-the-us-economy