Nasus Pharma Announces Data Demonstrating In Vitro Efficacy of Taffix® Intranasal Antiviral Spray Against SARS-CoV-2 British and South African Variants

TEL AVIV, Israel, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasus Pharma a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a powder-based intranasal (PBI) product portfolio to address acute medical conditions and public health threats, today announced data from a collaborative in vitro study with the Central Virology Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Public Health Services, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan, Israel, which demonstrated that the gel layer produced by Taffix^® powder after administration of a tissue culture infectious dose of the virus, effectively blocked 100% of the two new highly infective variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus ( the "British " and "South African" variants) as demonstrated by qt PCR testing of cells incubated with Taffix inoculated with the viruses.

"These important results conform with prior in vitro studies performed with Taffix where 99.99% of SARS- CoV-2 viruses were blocked by Taffix^[1], as well as other viruses known to cause upper respiratory infections. Importantly these results are consistent with real life clinical experience with Taffix where the risk of contracting COVID was reduced by 78% following a 'super spreader' event^[2]. These consistent results across multiple virus strains prove the robust non-specific activity against the transmission of multiple respiratory viruses," said Dr. Dalia Megiddo, Chief Executive Officer of Nasus Pharma. "The study's results reconfirm the versatility of our technology against various respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2 and its new variants and Taffix's potential as an important additional layer of protection against infection.

Udi Gilboa, Nasus Chairman of the Board of Nasus Pharma added, "There is an urgent need for solutions that enable resuming of economic and social activities safely. The changing dynamics of the virus and the continued appearance of additional mutations present a challenge to public health. Our new data demonstrates that Taffix can be helpful in preventing the spread of these new variants in addition to all other recommended safety measures. With the global growing use of Taffix, we have learned how important additional layer of protection is to facilitate a return to normalcy."

Taffix^®, currently sold in over 20 countries across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Middle East, was developed to create an acidic microenvironment in the nose which is proven to prevent viruses from entering and infecting nasal cells. It is now well established that the nose is the main gateway to the body of airborne droplet viral infection including SARS-COV-2. Taffix^® powder creates a unique thin acidified gel above the nasal mucosa that lasts 5 hours, significantly shielding the nasal cells from inhaled viruses through both mechanical and chemical protection. As such Taffix^® may be an important new protective tool in addition to the multiple preventive measures taken today for preventing SARS-COV-2 new variants from spreading further.   

About Nasus Pharma:

Based on its unique microsphere technology Nasus Pharma is developing a number of intranasal powder products aimed at assisting patients in several acute emergency situations such as opioid overdose and anaphylactic shock.

Intranasal administration is most suitable for those situations in which rapid drug delivery is required and offers multiple advantages such as rapid drug delivery, ease of use, non-invasiveness, and safety. Nasus' portfolio comprises a number of programs: Intranasal Naloxone (completed pivotal study) and Intranasal Epinephrine (completed phase 2) as well as a number of preclinical POC programs.

[1] Mann, Barbara J., et al. "Taffix® Nasal Powder forms an Effective Barrier against SARS-CoV-2." Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research 33.3 (2021): 25843-25845.

[2] Klang Shmuel, Megiddo Dalia, Lapidot Tair & Naparstek Yaakov (2021). Low pH Hypromellose (Taffix) nasal powder spray could reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection rate post mass-gathering event at a highly endemic community: an observational prospective open label user survey, Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, DOI: 10.1080/14787210.2021.1908127

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SOURCE Nasus Pharma