Shares of Novan (NOVN) skyrocketed 61% in pre-hours trading on Wednesday, this is leading up to the effectiveness of their Nitricil technology against SARS-CoV-2 in Human Airway Infection Model.
Why did Novan (NOVN) surge?
The company today announced positive in vitro results showing the potential efficacy of its NITRICIL™ platform technology as an antiviral against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. To evaluate the ability of its NITRICIL™ platform technology as a potential nasal treatment option for COVID-19, the Company initiated in vitro assessments targeting the reduction of viral burden in differentiated normal human bronchial epithelial cells. The studies were conducted at the Institute for Antiviral Research at Utah State University and these results demonstrate the first instance of an antiviral effect from a nitric oxide-based medicine in a 3-D tissue model that has similar structure to the human airway epithelium.
The results from the in vitro assessment of concentrations as low as 0.75 mg/mL demonstrated that berdazimer sodium reduced 90% of virus after repeat dosing, once daily.
“COVID-19 continues to have a major ongoing impact on global health and there remains a direct need for a safe and effective antiviral therapy. The naturally occurring antiviral effects of nitric oxide and the results we have generated from this assessment, provide us with confidence that our NITRICIL™ platform technology may be an effective treatment for COVID-19. We also believe the data from this sophisticated model of the human respiratory tract demonstrate a high potential for clinical translation”
Paula Brown Stafford, CEO of Novan
Novan plans to initiate Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) work with a global leader in providing integrated services, superior delivery technologies and manufacturing solutions to develop an intranasal formulation of berdazimer sodium for use in the Company’s COVID-19 program.
Dr. Carri Geer, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer added, “With these encouraging in vitro results in hand, the next step is to advance our program into preclinical IND-enabling studies to further confirm the safety of our NITRICIL™ technology when administered intranasally. We are in the process of finalizing arrangements with a global leader in drug development to assist in our development activities as we work toward a potential IND filing targeted in 2021.”
Based on the scientific literature and data available to-date with berdazimer sodium and Novan’s product candidate SB206, Novan believes that nitric oxide may inhibit viral replication by disrupting protein function critical for viral replication and infection through generation of reactive intermediates.
Is Novan (NOVN) a viable investment option?
Shares of Novan (NOVN) appear to be a very good investment option, the Money Midnight Indicator is expecting its price to increase considerably in the next couple of months. The majority of the metrics point to this investment being highly attractive.
