Shelton”™s NanoViricides has nominated a clinical drug candidate for the treatment of Covid-19, bringing it a step closer to conducting human clinical trials.
The candidate, NV-CoV-1-R, combines the company”™s nanoviricides platform with remdesivir, the anti-viral drug that has been approved for emergency use to treat the coronavirus.
The drug is designed to attack the virus particles themselves and possibly would also attack infected cells that display the virus antigen S-protein, while sparing normal (uninfected) cells that do not display the S-protein.
In addition, with remdesivir understood to attack the replication cycle of the virus inside cells, NanoViricides said the combined attack enabled by NV-CoV-1-R on the virus could prove to be a cure for the infection and the disease ”“ provided that the necessary dosage level can be attained without undue adverse effects.
Human clinical trials will be required to determine the safety and effectiveness of NV-CoV-1-R. NanoViricides said it is working to complete the necessary required safety pharmacology studies that would allow it to apply to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for permission to begin those trials.
“This is an extremely important milestone for the company,” said NanoViricides President and Executive Chairman Anil R. Diwan. “We look forward to rapid development of the IND (investigational new drug) enabling core safety pharmacology studies and, thereafter, human clinical development on an accelerated timeline in these trying times of the pandemic.”
