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weekend reading
More on Colds
Almost two weeks after coming down with a common cold, I’m still not completely free of the effects of this particular virus. This is partly because I let things back up when I was really sick. Now, I’m better but trying to dig my way out of a hole despite being tired most of the time. This is caused by the lingering aftereffects of a respiratory infection. My VO2 max is way below normal and will be until the lung cells hijacked by the cold virus are replaced. I can do mild cardio, but intense exercises like squats and deadlifts are too much, leaving me exhausted and panting like a high-altitude climber.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been hit this hard by a cold, and it’s led me to one inescapable conclusion. There is going to be a huge market for a NanoViricides (NNVC) (*see disclosure below) cold drug when it finally becomes available.
While it’s true that most colds are minor events, the fact that the occasional infection can be brutal means that a lot of people will choose to knock out any cold they get as soon as symptoms appear. Putting aside pain and suffering, colds are a significant financial burden.
Right now, Americans spend around $3 billion annually for OTC cold medications that do very little to ease the course of the disease but do seem to lower IQs. Another half billion or so is spent on prescription drugs. I have no doubt that demand for a drug that simply and quickly ended cold symptoms, however, would be much, much greater. The cost of physician visits due to colds is estimated to run at about $8 billion, and lost productivity probably adds another $10 billion or so to the cost of colds every year.
As A. Mark Fendrick, MD, with the Consortium for Health Outcomes, Innovation, and Cost Effectiveness Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor point out, "Because there is no cure for the common cold it gets far less attention than many less common conditions. An intervention that would effectively prevent or treat the cold would have a huge clinical and economic impact, far greater than for chronic diseases that we hear about on a regular basis."
Though the NanoViricides platform is perfectly capable of entrapping and neutralizing the rhinoviruses that cause colds (including the adenovirus, which causes particularly severe infections) the company has never focused on this target. You can understand why.
The discovery of the nanoviricides platform (polymer micelles that transform when viruses attach and activate the attached ligands) represents a revolution in the treatment of diseases caused by viruses. As is often the case, the scientists in the company immediately began thinking about solving the big virus problems. Most scientists choose their career paths in part because they want to improve humanity’s lot, and the NanoViricides crew is no exception.
Initially, the company decided to go after the virus that was dominating the news at the time: HIV. When it became apparent that the political ramifications of that disease would raise costs and extend timelines enormously, the company started looking seriously at the virus that does the most harm to the most people: influenza.
I think that most people underestimate the risks and costs associated with influenza, just as they do colds. The WHO, however, estimated in 2003 that the cost of an influenza epidemic in the US can run as high as $167 billion, depending on the type of virus in circulation. Globally, as many as a half million people, most aged 65 or older, are killed by influenza every year. Both figures are surely much higher today.
For NanoViricides, however, influenza was the wrong first target because the company is pioneering the manufacturing process for nanoviricides, and it will take a few years before it’s possible to make enough flu drug to treat even the medical first-responders, who are most likely to suffer and die during epidemics.
This is why the company lowered its sights from the big killer viruses to a far less common or lethal disease, herpes of the eye. This is a market the company can address at current production levels while earning significant profits. Then, when the platform is validated, the money will be available to scale up production and manufacture enough drug for more high-profile diseases, including influenza and Zika.
Personally, however, I think that the common cold may be an even more attractive target, in part because it will be much easier to enroll clinical subjects. This is especially true now that the company has shown that it can deliver nanoviricides into the blood stream orally. If I had an extra $20 million or so, I’d be talking to the company right now about accelerating development of an oral cold drug before the pharmaceutical community catches on to the potential of this technology. Regardless, NanoViricides’ pipeline is incredibly deep and long.
(*Disclosure: The editors or principals of Mauldin Economics have a position in this security. They have no plans to sell their position at this time. There is an ethics policy in place that specifies subscribers must receive advance notice should the editors or principals intend to sell.)
For transformational profits,
Patrick Cox
Mr. Jones. This took a lot of your time. THANK YOU!I have know that this journey is moving forward. Too bad that a discovery made years ago need to follow the rules. Now the finish tape is in sight.
Why the world needs NNVC to succeed at a rapid pace.
Antibiotics saved many lives. Some of the lives saved became inventors, capitalists, and good old fashion people. Each of these groups created or supplied labors to create or consume goods and services. Without demand for goods and/or services our economy stalls.
People who are healthy demand and receive, thus creating commerce.
With the world commerce slowing, a way to create more demand is to keep people healthy and alive!
This is where NNVC will play a MAJOR role. The MANY cides to target MANY viruses is the key. Dr. A. Diwan has found the key and is working within the guidelines of a governmental structure to get his discoveries in the hands of health care workers to save MILLIONS of lives and shorten the misery of HUNDRED OF MILLIONS more.
NNVC has the goods, now to get to market.
To All:
When contemplating the extraordinarily small "float" (the number of shares freely tradeable) of NNVC, which is at most 40 million, I can't make any sense of the numbers. THERE IS JUST TOO LITTLE STOCK AVAILABLE RELATIVE TO THE MAGNITITUDE OF THE SALES POTENTIAL OF THE DRUGS THAT COULD BE DEVELOPED USING THIS BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM.
Let me use various numerators to attempt to illustrate the problem:
a. 15,000 individual investors: 2,666 shares each
b. 10,000 individual investors: 4,000 shares each
c. 5,000 individual investors : 8,000 shares each
d. 4,000 individual investors : 10,000 shares each** (what I have advised each of you to own at a minimum, thereby becoming millionaires when the stock passes $100 per share)
BOTTOM LINE: If any of you are thinking of "averaging up" by buying any more stock, DON'T HESITATE! The only way this imbalance can be "corrected" is by price adjustment; this is a polite way of saying that this stock will EXPLODE higher in price SOON!
Your certainly missed my message. They was no insider information in the email I used. AND you did not comment on the scientific part of the email.
Mr. MJJONES you might like this.
From an email from Dr. Seymour edited for this forum.
Their drugs (all other biotech’s not NNVC’S) must enter a cell and somehow change the architecture by using the cells metabolic machinery to change a protein or do something similar
We do just the opposite. We could care less about the cell. We only care about the virus, not the nature of the host cell or animal containing it.
Essentially, when an animal (including humans) has a viral infection, we destroy the virus and only the virus. We do NOT enter the cell so the type of host makes no difference to our drugs.
In that manner, we’ve wrung out the risk and can proceed to enter human trials with no concern about our drug’s efficacy nor potential for toxicity
Once that is understood, the brilliance of our system becomes absolutely clear and the risk of failure is now essentially gone! ”We’ve tried our various compounds as intravenous preparations, topically on the skin and as drops in the eye, all with great success", (over 6,000 tested animals).
This is from the editor, and an all in investor. I have been here many years. I understood early on, IMHO, how NNVC’S cides worked. It is very simple. The problem as I see it is our doctors are thinking like the medical community of doctors and presenting NNVC as a drug company. See if this can help you understand my point of view.
Bear with me a little bit.
1. Biotechnology From a search engine.
Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use" (UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Art. 2).
At its simplest, biotechnology is technology based on biology - biotechnology harnesses cellular and bimolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet. We have used the biological processes of microorganisms for more than 6,000 years to make useful food products, such as bread and cheese, and to preserve dairy products.
IMHO, NNVC is not categorized correctly. It should be a chemical company. The particles have no ability to reproduce! The particles are inert. They are compounded and combined. Then the cides are introduced into the blood stream somehow infused or orally, or placed on the lesion. The living virus needs a host to reproduce. When the virus comes in contact with a cide particle it sees a structure that looks like the pathway into a cell. The virus then destroys itself trying to enter a Trojan host. Our system then filers out these spent particles and eliminates them naturally. NNVC’s cides as I have heard can remain it the system for up to 28 days and act in a prophylactic manner.
In my conclusion then- Biotechs kill stuff. NNVC’s cide allows viruses to kill themselves. A big difference.
Will NNVC trade over ONE MILLION SHARES today
People go to casinos and put their money in machines that they know make money and have built the building they are standing/sitting in, That doesn't stop them from trying to find a "LOOSE" MACHINE.
With biotech at least you have a chance to help mankind if the wheel stops on a winner. If you have two bars stopped and you could still place you bet I know many would be throwing dollars at the slot.
NNVC was this way! now all those millions who want a product that can improve the lot of mankind (CURE VIRSUSES) AND PAY OFF BIG have a chance to still play at these levels. Gilead is trading around $90. Where did it start? NNVC by itself can be the biggest biotech in the world. No one else has any product that is so flexible and so novel.
Buy now or later, but by buying now you can get more shares for you bet(money).
Facts we do not know about the 200g batches.
1. how long does it take from start to finish to create 200gs of cide.
2. How many spaces in the lab is dedicated to making batches.
3. how many batches have been made.
Where or how did you compute the sales of NNVC
---------------------------
I assumed that NNVC
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And with NNVC how did you derive an asset figure. These are two important numbers you MADE up. (When I was a kid, made up equaled lie)
Back up
I see NNVC now priced very close to its fair market value after Herpescide is tested, FDA approved, and ready for sale. An awful lot of positive news that hasn't happened yet is already priced in. That is not a reason to be optimistic about the medium term share price.
With the numbers you used to arrive at this!!!!
If you tell a lie enough times it is still a lie!!!
Mr. Jones, Sir. I would think the labs would need to sign non disclosure and no trading do to "insider information".
Please correct me if I am in error.
But, it would be nice it that were the reason.
Wow, plunging off HOD, back under $2.00. Timber!! Vol way up 328,000. (tongue in cheek also)
re is not enough trading activity for anyone to try to make any money now.
JG36, get up to speed. 6,000 animals... no tox. method of action is not like a drug. It is like a magnet circulating in the blood stream or in the cream looking to kill the virus. Way different method of action.
Dr.s are invested in both NNVC and Theracour. They are HONARABLE people and not looking to be fleeced by a rich pharma, so they have protected themselves and US.
I am happy to be here.
Mission IR could be going long and taking/making their money the old fashion way.
IMHO I think you not thinking about what What the big funds who do NOT own any shares will do. At these prices and below $20.00 it is a bargin they can take a chance on since the upside is so great. Remember Bacteria? Now Virus can be CURED.
Check Patrick Cox"s report on NNVC
Not entirely correct. validation and PPS can come from many sources, like Dr R. and Herpes. OR ?????
History books and poetry tell us it is always darkest before dawn! It seems as if we are just starting to see the first vestiges of a glorious sun rise.
The news has been quite clear that producing larger batches is progressing slowly. Getting the procedures right to so important.
Repeatability is so critical. But the report that has sneaked out from under the tent has said that scale-up is working, be it at smaller quantities than the goal.
If we progressed from a few drops to a teaspoonful, to a tablespoon, to 1 gram, to 50 grams, to 100 grams, to 1,000 grams. If there is a theoretical limit at this point it makes no difference. If 500 grams were to be found to be the limit NNVC could buy more hardware and the cures made at this level.
NNVC can make cides, after all, 6,000+- animals have been sacrificed, tests and comparisons have shown IN Creditable efficacy, and NO TOXICITY!
14,318 $ 1.805
(16:14:29 PM) $ 1.77
(16:16:12 PM)
Trade Detail
Most Active in the After-Hours
After Hours Time (ET)
After Hours Price
After Hours Share Volume
17:54 $ 1.8004 39,869
17:53 $ 1.8004 39,869 - Cancelled Trade
17:51 $ 1.8002 2,000
17:50 $ 1.8002 2,000 - Cancelled Trade
17:12 $ 1.80 2,021
16:59 $ 1.80 2,021 - Cancelled Trade
16:55 $ 1.80 1,988
16:44 $ 1.8004 39,869
16:42 $ 1.80 2,957
16:42 $ 1.8002 2,000
16:39 $ 1.80 2,021
16:34 $ 1.8002 76,213
16:29 $ 1.801 13,459
16:29 $ 1.8002 58,800
16:26 $ 1.801 7,898
16:26 $ 1.8004 3,110
16:21 $ 1.80 4,676
16:16 $ 1.77 Low 800
16:14 $ 1.805 High 527
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nnvc/after-hours#ixzz3eD477XGo
The certificate of occupancy takes care of all the human factors, like toilets and water.
8% (your made up number) is a start. And 6,000 dead animals is a start.
How inaccurate can a post be? The tox testing at BASi has passed the first 2 parts with FLYING COLORS! Now we are awaiting scale up to produce an incredible quantity of the Flucide to test further.
Right the risk from sacrificing 6,000 test animals with curing viruses with no toxicity has been reduced with the 500g and maybe 1KG.
no like button here, but I am with you all the way.
NNVC's ability to TWEAK their cides has now been greatly enhanced by the new lab.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
from the PR
In just four cycles of further improvements the Company has now reached its goal of substantially complete survival in the highly lethal animal model of dermal herpesvirus infection (HSV-1 H129c strain), wherein no current drugs have shown substantial survival effect. Our anti-herpes program began in 2009, and we immediately observed dramatic viral load reduction (>99.9%) in cell cultures. Nevertheless, due to financial constraints, this program continued to be on the back burner. This and many of our other programs were accelerated following up-listing in 2013 to the NYSE-MKT exchange which enabled us to raise significant funding.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The samples of work that are "in progress" will no longer need to be farmed out for testing at the "test tub" level for "regular" viruses. Highly lethal viruses will still need to be sent to secure labs as NNVC does not have or will not have a BSL-4 level containment facility where they can have the samples on hand.
The time saved will be enormous.
After the platform's safety has been validated time NNVC's time to market will be very quick, IMHO. AND NNVC will have a stream lined effort at the BSL-4 labs due to their technology! and Stature.
I have seen that. But, so many and so consistant.
Somany100 share trades. How much commission does this generate and for whom? Just crossed 300k vol.
big buys and time stamps
09:48:47 $ 1.87 25,315
09:50:11 $ 1.89 5,000
09:50:36 $ 1.89 14,000
09:53:17 $ 1.89 15,000
with smaller and HFTs in between. pace is a steady orderly march UP
Ddtonate, I guess big numbers are beyond .........
somebody is buying
NanoViricides, Inc.
NLS Time (ET)
NLS Price
NLS Share Volume
09:57:09 $ 1.85 1,300
09:57:08 $ 1.85 100
09:56:43 $ 1.88 100
09:56:43 $ 1.88 100
09:56:41 $ 1.88 100
09:55:57 $ 1.89 100
09:55:52 $ 1.8901 1,500
09:53:46 $ 1.89 200
09:53:43 $ 1.89 300
09:53:17 $ 1.89 15,000
09:53:07 $ 1.90 100
09:51:49 $ 1.91 100
09:51:33 $ 1.90 100
09:51:04 $ 1.88 100
09:51:04 $ 1.88 400
09:51:04 $ 1.88 400
09:50:36 $ 1.89 1,000
09:50:36 $ 1.89 14,000
09:50:36 $ 1.89 300
09:50:36 $ 1.89 100
09:50:14 $ 1.8899 1,000
09:50:13 $ 1.89 1,000
09:50:11 $ 1.89 5,000
09:48:47 $ 1.87 25,315
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nnvc/time-sales#ixzz3c6NU1a6A
6/2/2015 1:53:23 PM
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NanoViricides, Inc. (NNVC) Game-Changing Antivirals with Wholly Novel Mechanism of Action Poised for Profit in $27 Billion Plus Global Market
May 18, 2015 (Investorideas.com stocks newswire) NanoViricides™ is on the cutting-edge of nanobiotechnology, with a rapidly developing portfolio of indications designed to treat some of the most daunting viruses known to man and do so in a wholly new and compelling fashion, to which said viruses may never be able to effectively adapt. The company’s core technology exploits the very mechanism and features of a virus which allow it to bind to a cell. By focusing on the receptor binding molecules on the surface of a virion itself, which are chemically similar even among viruses of varied protein signature and which rarely change as a virus mutates, the company’s nanoviricides actually cover up and block a virus’ multiple binding sites.
By using virus-binding ligands that are derived from the virion's own cell surface receptor binding sites, which are covalently attached to nanomicelle polymers as a backbone carrier (an aggregation of surface tension lowering molecules with polymer strands that can unfold and encompass a virion, potentially also carrying active pharmaceuticals), the company's nanoviricides provide an unrivaled versatility when it comes to how they work and how they can be administered. Nanoviricide technology represents a real breakthrough in how we handle viral infections and because the technology may be capable of optionally attacking the viral genome itself and eradicating the virus, as well as smuggling active pharmaceutical ingredients in, right up to the surface of the virus, there is considerable upper limit potential here as well.
This platform technology is being developed along two distinct vectors. Firstly, for providing solutions to highly targeted and virus-specific applications, as is suitable for treating HIV, Influenza and Avian (bird) Flu, like the A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) strains that have crossed over into humans. Secondly, for providing broad-spectrum nanoviricidal indications which could prove extremely effective at combating some of the most rapidly changing tropical diseases, such as Ebola. The company's virus-specific nanoviricides function in such a targeted manner that the non-specific (side) effects which are typically experienced with most anti-viral agents on the market today, impacting both the virus and healthy host cells, are essentially eliminated. The PEG-based (polyethylene glycol) polymer used also means an optimum safety threshold with very limited immune reactions and foreseeably easy clearance via the FDA.
The company's broad-spectrum nanoviricides have the potential to address up to 95% of known viruses, providing the same kind of shotgun approach that allows various classes of antibiotic to treat multiple forms of bacteria, because they exploit a feature that is common to all bacteria. Furthermore, the company's proprietary Accurate-Drug-In-Field™ (or ADIF) technology could quickly become the go-to field solution for containing outbreaks, giving healthcare providers the ability to dynamically respond to outbreaks around the world, using stockpiled nanomicelles as their primary weapon. This key technological advantage offers healthcare providers the ability to have the first dosages of a treatment drug up and running in as little as three weeks, with a window as short as three months possible for being able to roll out enough of the drug in order to treat people external to the outbreak zone and really contain the virus.
The capacity of ADIF technology to generate a drug targeted at a specific virus, without having to understand its molecular biology or even have a specific identification, has enormous biodefense potential, and represents a true frontline solution for combating novel viruses, in addition to its obvious ability to help put handles on an outbreak of a known virus. The capacity to rapidly develop a field solution that can simply and completely gum up the ability of virtually any virus to bind to host cells could mean one of the only universally effective ways to head off a future biological catastrophe at the pass. And because the mechanism of action in a nanoviricide is wholly different than that of typical vaccines, which rely on stimulating the host's immune system, nanoviricidal indications could prove to be highly successful even in patients with compromised or weakened immune systems.
This novel mechanism of action not only future-proofs the company's technology due to its ability to fool practically any virus that emerges, effectively coating the virus in nanoviricide and eventually destabilizing/dismantling it without the help of the host's immune system, it is also backed up by considerable IP, given that all of the company's candidates are based on the highly-tailorable TheraCour® polymeric micelle technology created by Anil R. Diwan, PhD, NNVC's President and founder. The biomimetic capabilities of such nanoviricides, which mimic existing biochemical processes, take full advantage of such properties as addressing and encapsulation, as well as lipid fusion, not just blocking a few sites, but engulfing the virus particle in its entirety and initiating its decomposition. With exclusive worldwide license to this technology and two broad international patent applications covering everything from manufacture to materials, as well as the methods and fields of use, NNVC is in a very strong IP position and intends to file patent applications on each separate drug as they go along.
Nanoviricides as a tool have the potential to effectively combat some of the most daunting viruses in existence that have defied medical science for decades or more, like the constantly and rapidly changing Influenza virus, better known as the common cold, for which existing vaccination regimens have proven to be only marginally effective. With the CDC's own data openly acknowledging the widely ranging effectiveness of vaccination against various strains of Influenza and with other daunting viruses on the loose like dengue (fever), which was just recently the subject of an epidemic declaration in Brazil by the country's Health Minister, as well as HIV, herpes, and even Ebola now spreading around the globe, the demand for a wholly new and clinically effective approach is greater than ever before.
Currently, the company has six commercially significant drug development programs in various stages, including both an injectable and oral version of an Influenza drug, aptly named FluCide®. Injectable FluCide™ saw a good safety report profile come out back in January of this year, showing no direct adverse clinical effects observed after a 4,200mg/kg total intravenous dosage over 14 days in a GLP-like toxicology study in rats, which was conducted by Bioanalytical Systems (NASDAQ: BASI). This injectable version of FluCide is in IND-enabling studies at the moment and represents the most advanced of all of the company's pipeline candidates. With this latest study confirming earlier results of a non-GLP toxicology study in mice and also showing positive findings in different influenza A strains, posting similarly high marks for safety and toxicology, FluCide is now clearly ready to move on to the next step. Commissioning operations are currently in the offing and are slated to take place at the company's new state-of-the-art cGMP-compliant manufacturing and R&D facility in Connecticut, which was acquired in January this year.
The company's strong cash-in-hand position and $36.4 million in current assets plus restricted cash reported at the close of 2014, on a burn rate in the neighborhood of $2 million a quarter, NNVC feels very comfortable having grabbed this important 18k square foot facility, which has all the lab, as well as cGMP-compliant raw materials handling/dispensing and clean room suites needed, to make and package clinical-scale quantities of the company's nanomedicines. More importantly, the acquisition is a much more economically sustainable option than leasing and the company is confident that this facility, combined with their strong financial position, will ably carry them into human clinical studies on at least one of their promising candidates, and quite possibly allow for one other drug to reach the IND development stage.
The company's anti-HSV (herpes simplex virus) drug candidates have demonstrated greater than 99.9% inhibition in cell culture against two distinct, different strains of herpes. The incredible effectiveness of the company's anti-herpes drug candidates reported in April this year – where it blew the current standard of care, acyclovir, out of the water, with lethally infected HSV-1 H129c strain mice showing substantially complete survival – is a clear indication of how promising these anti-HSV candidates truly are. NanoViricides will seek rapid drug approval from the FDA for its anti-herpes candidates and the company is especially confident considering that acyclovir used at two times the concentration needed for humans has only showed a less than a 58% survival rate. What's more, the anti-herpes candidates from NanoViricides demonstrated a significant reduction in disease severity alongside the extremely high survival rate, potentially making it a shoe in for FDA fast track. NNVC has also seen some powerful results in EKC (epidemic kerato-conjunctivitis), or severe pink eye disease, with their EKC-Cide™ candidate, and ongoing work in HIV/AIDS has also been quite promising, with sustained viral load reduction in HIV-1 even after treatment with HivCide™ was stopped, according to a recent mouse model study.
Also worth mentioning here is how the company's rapid design platform has led to several EbolaCide™ candidates being developed in recent months, with positive results from the company's collaborating BSL-4 facility in January showing broad-spectrum efficacy against both Ebola and the closely related Filoviridae family hemorrhagic fever virus, Marburg. Given the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest in the planet's history according to CDC data, with two reported cases having been officially imported to the U.S. during the outbreak, NNVC's EbolaCide candidates could be just the thing that the CDC and WHO have been looking for in order to help stop the next outbreak before it happens.
Mimicking natural host cell receptors and tricking a virus to bind to nanoviricidal nanomicelles, effectively encapsulating the virus and making it non-infectious, is a potentially disruptive, game-changing technology for the roughly $27.6 billion global antiviral market, which is on track to hit upwards of $36.44 billion by 2019 according to recent analysis published by Mordor Intelligence. The space is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 5.71% over the next several years through 2019, and NanoViricides is positioned to capture significant market share if their revolutionary nanomedicines pan out as hoped.
Take a closer look by visiting www.nanoviricides.com
Your probably right about the HFT screwing things up. I am old and have the old system of "specialists" on the floor making the price and handling the trades.
BUT, wHEN I see so much potential it screams buy!!!
With Nano there is always a surprise possible. The market potential is so large and the potential for EXTREME profits at PPS even at $100.00 (no mistake in the price estimate) that market makers should be buying shares by the gross.
R the shorts out of money? OR are they helping the movement by covering? OR are there no shares available to short? OR is new money, smart money picking up at these vvvveeeerrrryyyy cheap prices? OR R the shorts taking profits and getting ready to depart and look for greener pastures.
Everyone need to read this article from NYSE, by Scott Alexander!
nyse.com
VIRAL SENSATION
NanoViricides May Be on the Verge of a Whole New Era in Medicine
by Scott Alexander
Considering the millions of deaths they prevent each year, the impact of vaccines and antibiotics on the human race is incalculable. It’s safe to say that advancements such as Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine and Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin have changed the course of human history. And today, science is on the verge of discovering an entirely new branch of epidemiological medicine — one that could lead to another giant leap forward in the treatment of a number of thus far incurable diseases.
The goal of Dr. Anil Diwan, co-founder of NanoViricides (NYSE MKT: NNVC), is not a modest one. If successful, his work will mean effective treatments for HIV, Ebola, rabies, hepatitis C, influenza, dengue fever and herpes, among other viruses. These are diseases that have bedeviled humankind for decades in some cases, millennia in others. How does he plan to tackle these notoriously difficult foes? By pioneering an entirely new way of treating viral diseases.
Conceptually, Diwan's idea is simple: create a medicine that neutralizes the virus in the patient’s body and can be administered after the patient has contracted a disease. Diwan came up with a theory for how this could be accomplished in 1992 and has spent the last two decades bringing his vision to fruition. “I started thinking about the interaction between viruses and cells,” he says, “and how we might be able to impact a virus’s life cycle.”
Traditional vaccines work by activating the body’s immune system. Patients are exposed to a weakened or dead version of a virus, which features its “signature” of surface proteins. When the body mounts its defense, it creates antibodies specifically targeted toward those virus proteins. The virus is added to the “database” of that person’s immune system, in the form of memory B cells. With the information in place, the immune system can effectively defend itself if that virus reappears.
But while vaccines have been effective for a wide number of devastating diseases (including smallpox, diphtheria, measles, pertussis, mumps, polio, rubella and typhoid), they are not effective for all viruses. Influenza mutates rapidly; its protein signature is constantly changing, making last year’s vaccination ineffective against this year’s strain. Retroviruses, such as HIV, are even trickier, injecting themselves into the genetic material of healthy cells and thereby making the virus invisible to the immune system.
Also, the vaccination method of disease prevention relies on the strong functioning of a patient’s immune system. Vaccines may not be effective for people who are weakened, and are of no help once a patient has contracted the disease.
The strength of the NanoViricides approach is threefold: It does not require the involvement of the patient's immune system; the medicines could be administered after a patient is already ill; and their effectiveness relies on a viral mechanism that should prove almost impossible for viruses to mutate away from.
While viruses’ protein signatures vary widely, they use certain common chemical “hooks” to attach themselves to healthy cells. “Think of the specific receptor, the protein that is on the on the cell surface, as a lock,” Diwan explains. Viruses gain entry to healthy cells by developing matching “key” proteins on their surfaces. Diwan’s nanoviricide medicines bind to the “keys,” neutralizing them and preventing the virus from attaching to healthy cells. “It essentially molds itself around the key,” he says. The receptors on our healthy cells do not change, so even if a virus mutates, it still needs to use the same key to get in. Diwan believes that this simple biological fact will make it extremely difficult for viruses to develop ways to evade his medicines.
Diwan’s method involves bonding these gummy “lock” chemicals (known as ligands) along a polymer micelle backbone. When these polymer strands are introduced into the patient’s bloodstream, they bind to the virus’s “key” sites. “They coat the virus like an oil slick on a leaf,” Diwan explains. Then, once the virus has been encapsulated, the body’s natural systems clear them from the blood as they would any other waste.
The results could be nothing short of astonishing. Flu, for instance, would instantly become trivial. “If we see the same thing in humans that we did in mice, it will probably work with a single dose, one pill and you’re done,” Diwan says. “If you start sneezing and shivering, you go to the pharmacy, take a pill, and go to work the next day like nothing happened.” It would also mean a revolution in the treatment of HIV, Ebola, hepatitis C and dengue fever.
However, the road thus far has not been easy. After Diwan had the initial idea for this class of drug in 1992, it took seven years to develop the process of attaching ligands to polymeric micelles. In 2005 he co-founded NanoViricides with Dr. Eugene Seymour. Their first targets were influenza and HIV. “We had immediate success against influenza,” he recalls. “The first substances we created were found to be tenfold better than Tamiflu in animal models. Now they are hundreds of times better.”
After initially going public through a merger, the company traded on the OTCBB until it was able to uplist to NYSE MKT in 2013. “Going public was critical,” Diwan says, noting that “uplisting gave us the bandwidth to raise the large amounts of money we needed for clinical trials.” Drug development costs can run as high as $800 million for a single drug; new drugs take an average of nine to 12 years to develop, and after development they take an average of 12 years to be approved for use. During that time, regulations can change, competitors can come to market, or drugs may simply fail to perform as expected. Since the 1980s, the drug approval rate has hovered around 20 percent. And even drugs that make it to market enjoy no guarantee of success, thanks to the industry’s “blockbuster” nature, by which 56 percent of drug sales go to just 10 percent of the drugs on the market.
These timelines and cost structures mean that new drug development is typically the province of massive, so-called “big pharma” companies that have large enough portfolios to offset the high cost of drug development. This is in sharp contrast to the go-go nature of most startups, where spending 22 years without a saleable product is an unworkable option. However, thanks to a lean operation (NanoViricides and its affiliates employ just 22 people) and the risk tolerance of the stock market, NanoViricides is now within striking distance of its goal. Though they have performed countless animal trials over the years, Diwan says that if all goes according to plan, the company could be in human trials with their new medicines within two years.
Once the fundamental action of this class of drug has been demonstrated, Diwan believes it will pave the way for other drugs they currently have in the pipeline. He’s been working on this so long, and has seen his creations work in the lab so many times, that it’s understandable for him to be eager to see them start helping humans. “When that happens in the field, that will be the most gratifying moment,” he says. “I hope it happens for everybody’s sake, not just the company’s."
Question not answered. Where are this many short shares coming from?
REG SHO is designed to inform us if shares that have been traded have not been delivered within 3 days of the transaction. (This is my understanding anyway).
With the constant high number and percentage of shares being shorted as reported by http://vmbook.com/short/Health-Care/Biotechnology-Commercial-Physical-Biological-Research/NNVC/index.php , I would like to know where these shares are coming from.
Selling unowned (naked) shares to me is the same as counterfeiting! But it is allowed by the SEC under the guise of just a timing matter
NNVC has not been on the list whenever I have looked.
Could the various groups be swapping shares between themselves to keep them off the list? Could each of these companies push the shares around in time so as not trigger getting on the list?
Can anyone find out if this is possible?
REG SHO is designed to inform us if shares that have been traded have not been delivered within 3 days of the transaction. (This is my understanding anyway).
With the constant high number and percentage of shares being shorted as reported by http://vmbook.com/short/Health-Care/Biotechnology-Commercial-Physical-Biological-Research/NNVC/index.php , I would like to know where these shares are coming from.
Selling unowned (naked) shares to me is the same as counterfeiting! But it is allowed by the SEC under the guise of just a timing matter
NNVC has not been on the list whenever I have looked.
Could the various groups be swapping shares between themselves to keep them off the list? Could each of these companies push the shares around in time so as not trigger getting on the list?
Can anyone find out if this is possible?
This year there is a bug GOING AROUND that seems to take 3 to 4 weeks to be gone. I know of couples who have taken turns with it and keep reinfecting each other (WA State).
Dr K. Your a renound scientist, so I hate to correct your time frame, But IMHO, An infected person could go to the ER and be dosed, and walk out 6 hrs later feeling better, never needing to be admitted. When the cided is mixed in the blood stream I begins to work instantly! The results should be apparent to a lab tech in an hour, and continue to work form there .