NanoViricides (OTC:NNVC) Tuesday said that with the $6 million it recently raised, and its cash position at the end of its latest quarter, it has about $20 million in hand to support human trials of its anti-flu FluCide drugs.
With its “strong cash position”, the company said it believes that it has sufficient funds for the necessary Investigational New Drug Application (IND) enabling studies for its anti-influenza drug programs and to file an IND with the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
The company also said that its current cash position can support operations for at least two years at the current rate of cash expenditure.
As of December 31, NanoViricides said it had roughly $13.88 million in cash and equivalents, and $801,000 in prepaid expenses. Shareholder equity stood at about $15.6 million.
In comparison, the company said that it had $12.9 million in cash and equivalents, $438,000 in prepaid expenses, and $12.79 million in shareholder equity as of September 30.
It spent about $710,000 on research and development and $533,400 in general and administrative expenses in the latest quarter, in line with its budgeted targets.
The company said it has no long term debt, or short term debt, other than working capital accounts payables, and said all of its drug development programs are “progressing satisfactorily”.
According to the drug maker, its oral anti-influenza drug candidate, NV-INF-2, may be the first ever nanomedicine drug of any kind that is active when administered orally. This drug is being developed for out-patient influenza cases, and may also be useful for the protection of health care workers.
Its injectable anti-influenza drug, NV-INF-1, also continues to be advanced, and is intended for use in hospitalized patients with the flu. The company said it believes it will be useable in immuno-compromised populations, and may receive an orphan drug classification for this indication.
Both drugs in its FluCide program have shown “very high effectiveness” in preclinical animal studies, NanoViricides noted, routinely showing “substantial superiority” to Tamiflu, the current standard of care.
The FluCide drugs are intended for use against most types of flu viruses, including H1N1 or the “swine flu”, H3N2, novel strain, and bird flu.
The drugs are based on NanoViricides' biomimetic technology, which mimicks the natural sialic acid receptors for the influenza virus on the surface of a nanoviricide polymeric micelle. The company noted that all flu viruses bind to the sialic acid receptors, even if they rapidly mutate.
The company is also developing drugs against HIV, viral eye diseases, Herpes, and Dengue viruses.
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