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Companies Seek New Methods to Fight Viral Infections
9:00 am ET April 6, 2020 (PR Newswire) Print
Infectious diseases such as Ebola, Influenza, Zika, MERS and the recent pandemic that is still spreading, cause enormous loss of life and devastate economies around world. Certain factors influence the spread of such diseases, like globalization and associated travel and migration, the increasing population and suburban crowded homes, climate change, poor public health infrastructure and misuse of antibiotics are all, in part, responsible for the increase in severity of infectious disease. Efforts by pharmaceutical and biotech companies toward the pipeline on infectious diseases, key patents, as well as alliances with other organizations like the WHO and the CDC, are crucial for effective discovery, development and distribution of treatments. Furthermore, the global infectious disease therapeutics market is expected to reach USD 86.2 Billion by 2025 while growing at a CAGR of 6.6%, according to a report by Grand View Research, Inc. BioELife Corp. (OTC: LITH), BioSig Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSGM), Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: AYTU), Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLPH), NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE: NNVC)

In the meantime, the current outbreak continues to force governments and many industries to try and come up with innovative solutions to slow down the spread of the virus. As of Friday (April 3rD), the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, including more than 50,000 deaths. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing that "ultimately, the best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the virus, with the aggressive and comprehensive package of measures that we have spoken about many times before: find, test, isolate and treat every case, and trace every contact." However, the real number of those infected is expected to be much higher. Specifically, the number of people who have the virus but don't show symptoms and have not been tested is currently unknown. Studies have shown that it is people without symptoms that are causing substantial amounts of infection. As a result, WHO officials have warned that the outbreak could overwhelm health systems around the world in just a few weeks, urging governments to act swiftly.

BioELife Corp. (OTC: LITH) announced earlier last month that, "William (Bill) Marciniak is joining its Advisory Board of external experts to assist the Company in its strategic development. Mr. Marciniak brings over 35 years of pharmaceutical and manufacturing experience to help BioELife expand its product line, manufacturing and distributor relationships.

As a co-founder of RxElite, Mr. Marciniak achieved great success developing and producing albuterol and ipratropium. After acquiring the appropriate ANDA certification for each product, contracting with the top manufacturers and leading the distribution efforts, RxElite captured 33% market share in just 18 months. Their clients were the top wholesalers, distributors and pharmacy chains in America. RxElite was eventually acquired by Piramal Medical, a ten-billion-dollar healthcare organization based in India.

Over the past decade Mr. Marciniak has worked with some of the top wound care physicians in the world developing topical solutions for resistant microbials in the wound care sector. Mr. Marciniak's experience will be integral to the development of products for BioELife, particularly in the BioEDefense product line targeted at viral and bacterial infections.

Gregory Rotelli, Chairman of the Board and President of BioELife stated 'We are very excited that Mr. Marciniak has committed to work with BioELife to help grow our business. His experience will be fundamental in helping BioELife rapidly deploy solutions that are effective and help individuals defend themselves during this pandemic crisis. The future is full of challenges and BioELife will continue to develop its BioEDefense line of products to help people defend themselves against this viral and bacterial offensive. In addition, Mr. Marciniak will assist the Company in expanding its manufacturing, sourcing and strategic partnerships. Many of Bill's associates and contacts have already agreed to participate and help in our endeavors.'

About the Company: BioELife Corp was created by successful pharmaceutical entrepreneurs dedicated to using nature's resources to fight pain and infection while reducing the dependency on opioids and their terrible side effects. The Company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the emerging Cannabinoid market that is growing at phenomenal rates and is expected to reach $20 Billion over the next five years. The Company has created a 'seed to shelf' value-added product development and marketing organization with direct contracts for raw materials, scientific proprietary formulation, manufacturing, and distribution of medically focused Cannabinoid products. Additionally, the Company has a BioEDefense line of products that provide advanced protection from viral and bacterial contamination."

BioSig Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSGM), a medical technology company commercializing a proprietary biomedical signal processing platform, announced on April 3rd, 2020 that it intends to provide a public business update via teleconference regarding its recently acquired anti-viral pharmaceutical candidate, Vicromax(tm). The briefing is being held on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at 11am ET. In a preliminary internal review, the orally administered, broad-spectrum anti-viral agent Vicromax(tm) demonstrated strong activity against COVID-19 in cell cultures in laboratory testing. In this analysis, Vicromax(tm) was added to a tissue culture assay for SARS-CO-2 coronavirus (the causative agent for COVID-19) and an anti-viral effect was observed, which led to a reduction of over 90% of infectious viruses. The Company intends to pursue development of this agent for the treatment of COVID-19 through FDA-approved clinical trials. The product candidate already completed Phase I and three Phase II clinical trials involving over 134 subjects for indications other than COVID-19, and underwent extensive animal testing and human clinical experience.

Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: AYTU), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on commercializing novel products that address significant patient needs announced on April 3rd, that it began shipping its Coronavirus Disease 2019 ("COVID-2019") IgG/IgM Rapid Test to U.S. customers. Upon receipt of the initial 100,000 tests, the company completed product relabeling to ensure compliance with FDA guidance on COVID-19 serology test kits. The Company's first 2,750 COVID-19 Rapid Tests have been purchased by the Denver Police Department for use in screening Denver's first responders. The test kits were delivered to Denver Chief of Police Paul Pazen and members of his leadership team at Aytu BioScience's corporate headquarters on April 2, 2020. Josh Disbrow, Chief Executive Officer of Aytu BioScience, commented, "Upon receipt of our initial product shipment on March 31st, we immediately went to work to prepare the test kits for commercial distribution. The Aytu team has worked very hard over the last two days to relabel all 100,000 tests, and we're now shipping product to our customers across the country. Importantly, we are proud to be assisting our first responders here at home as we delivered over 2,000 tests to Denver Police Chief Pazen and his team."

Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLPH), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on developing treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases, announced last month that expanded access treatment with the INOpulse(R) inhaled nitric oxide system (iNO) was initiated for the first time in a patient with a diagnosis of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the University of Miami School of Medicine. The treatment follows the recent decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency expanded access that allows INOpulse to immediately be used for the treatment of COVID-19 under the care and supervision of their physician. "Based on previous studies that demonstrate the benefits of iNO in oxygenation and immune response, INOpulse has the potential to be used as a viable treatment option for COVID-19," said the treating physician, Roger Alvarez, DO, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Miami School of Medicine.

NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE: NNVC), a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, provided an update on March 16th, 2020 on its efforts towards drug development for the current novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. The Company has completed the synthesis of a number of nanoviricide drug candidates for testing in just a few weeks after identification of virus-binding ligands. This was possible because the Company is boot-strapping its efforts on the basis of its inventory of novel custom chemicals in hand. Additionally, the polymer backbone was previously manufactured in multi-kilogram quantities. However, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time.

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