NanoViricides Reports Excellent Inhibitory Effects of Its Topical Shingles Treatment Candidates Against VZV in Multiple Cell Culture Studies

SHELTON, Conn., June 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NanoViricides, Inc., (NYSE MKT: NNVC) (the "Company"), a pioneer in developing anti-viral nanomedicine drugs, reports that its topical drug candidates in development for the treatment of shingles have demonstrated excellent inhibition of the causative virus with practically no cytotoxicity in cell culture assays using multiple cell lines.

Two of the nanoviricide drug candidates in the HerpeCide™ program demonstrated almost complete inhibition of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) at the highest drug doses, whereas acyclovir at the same drug dose exhibited partial inhibition of the virus. These comparative studies indicated that the antiviral effect of the herpecide drug candidates was almost five times superior to that of acyclovir. These studies were conducted using ARPE-19 cell line, which is a sensitive retinal cell line. Additional studies with another cell line, namely BS-C-1 produced comparable results. No cytotoxicity was observed at any of the doses tested for the herpecide drug candidates.

"We are excited with the excellent effectiveness and safety of these shingles antiviral drug candidates," said Dr. Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH, CEO of the Company, adding, "We anticipate validation of our approach in skin culture studies as well. The human skin studies are already in progress in Professor Moffat's Lab at the SUNY Syracuse Upstate Medical Center. Taken together, these results will put us on a quick path towards an IND filing."

"We had strong confidence that the herpecide antivirals that we developed against HSV-1 would be effective against VZV as well. These studies validate our approach," said Anil R. Diwan, PhD, President and Chairman of the Company, adding, "Importantly, the drug candidates that were successful against VZV are simpler to manufacture than our drug candidates that were previously found to be successful against HSV-1 in animal studies. We believe that this will reduce our workload towards an IND filing and help accelerate our progress to the clinic."

Previously, the Company has demonstrated that treatment with certain herpecide drug candidates led to complete survival of small animals lethally infected with the aggressive and neurotropic HSV-1 strain H129c, wherein all of the untreated animals died. Those animal studies also reproducibly demonstrated dramatic improvements in clinical symptoms associated with herpes simplex virus infection, as illustrated by a complete absence of zosteriform spreading. Those animal studies were performed by TransPharm Preclinical Solutions ("TransPharm"), a pre-clinical services company in Jackson, MI, and by the laboratory of Dr. Ken S. Rosenthal at Northeast Ohio Medical University where Dr. Rosenthal then continued as a Professor Emeritus. Dr. Rosenthal is a leading researcher in herpes virus anti-viral agents and vaccines. He is now Professor of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, at the Roseman University of Health Sciences, Summerlin Campus, Las Vegas, NV.

The Company thereafter expanded its HerpeCide™ program into development of topical treatments for (a) herpes labials (HSV-1), (b) genital herpes (HSV-2), (c) shingles (VZV), and (d) herpes keratitis. Of these, the shingles treatment program is currently the most advanced and is rapidly moving towards clinical candidate selection.

About NanoViricides: 
NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. The Company is developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission..  Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in pre-clinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products.

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SOURCE NanoViricides, Inc.