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Organization and Nature of Business
3 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2022
Organization and Nature of Business  
Organization and Nature of Business

Note 1 – Organization and Nature of Business

NanoViricides, Inc. (the “Company”) is a nano-biopharmaceutical research and development company specializing in the discovery, development, and commercialization of drugs to combat viral infections using its unique and novel nanomedicines technology. NanoViricides is also unique in the bio-pharma field in that it possesses its own state of the art facilities for the design, synthesis, analysis and characterization of the nanomedicines that we develop, as well as for production scale-up, and c-GMP-like production in quantities needed for human clinical trials, where our design, development, and production work is performed. The biological studies such as the effectiveness, safety, bio-distribution and Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics on our drug candidates are performed by external collaborators and contract organizations.

The Company has several drugs in various stages of early development. COVID-19 has become our lead drug program due to the necessity of responding to the pandemic. The Company has a clinical lead candidate NV-CoV-2 for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19 disease) that has shown excellent effectiveness and safety in pre-clinical studies. IND-enabling studies of NV-CoV-2 have been completed. The Company is working on IND writing and engaging a Clinical Trials Clinical Research Organization in pursuit of Phase I/II human clinical trials of this drug. The Company is also working on performing clinical trials of this drug outside the USA. The Company began development of a drug to treat COVID-19 patients just as the cases of the novel disease were being reported from China. The Company cannot provide a timeline at this point because of external dependencies in the filing of regulatory applications, their approval(s) and beginning of clinical trials. As of September 30, 2022, there is only one antiviral drug (remdesivir) approved, and two non-antibody antiviral drugs (Paxlovid, Pfizer and Molnupiravir, Merck) given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA. Several of previously approved antibody therapies have lost efficacy and their EUAs have been revoked, as the virus mutated and new variants came in the field, as previously predicted by the Company. The antibodies that remain under EUA are expected to lose effectiveness as the virus continues to mutate and new escape variants take over. All of these drug approvals are restricted to specific population subsets, and there is no drug that is generally approved for treatment of COVID-19, particularly for patients with no co-morbidities and not at risk of hospitalization (https://www.fda.gov/drugs/emergency-preparedness-drugs/coronavirus-covid-19-drugs). In addition, there are at least three vaccines licensed in the USA and several more are in use internationally.  Internationally, virus variants have continued to emerge with resistance to drugs and vaccines. Scientists believe it is only a matter of time before escape variants against existing antibodies and vaccines, including the newly introduced Omicron/Original Strain bi-valent vaccines, and therapeutics become commonplace. Thus there is an unmet need that the Company’s broad-spectrum, pan-coronavirus drug NV-CoV-2 is expected to fulfill for therapeutics that the virus would not escape by mutations. Additionally, specific populations such as immune-compromised persons, HIV-positive persons, and others would require therapeutics even if they are fully vaccinated, as the weak immune system in these populations limits the ability of vaccines to protect from COVID-19 infection and disease.

In response to the recent Monkeypox virus (MPXV) epidemic, the Company has begun a limited drug development program to treat MPXV patients.  At present, while it appears that this epidemic is quieting down, experts expect that this virus will become endemic in the Western world, as it is in the African subcontinent (https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/cases-data/technical-report/report-3.html#dynamics).  A vaccine against smallpox appears to have substantial effectiveness in protecting vaccinated persons from MPXV infection. The only currently available drug, tecovirimat, approved for smallpox, has a low escape barrier for virus mutations, and has other limitations on its use. Thus there remains an urgent need for broad-spectrum drugs that can treat MPXV, smallpox, and other poxviruses.

Additionally, in response to the ongoing pediatric “acute flaccid myelitis” (AFM, a disease that can lead to paralysis) cases that appear to be on an uptick, the Company has initiated a limited broad-spectrum drug development program for the treatment of Enterovirus D68 (EV68), the cause of AFM, and potentially other enteroviruses including the poliovirus. Cases of polio have begun to emerge in the United States. Apparently due to loss of “herd immunity” as the poliovirus immunizations in childhood have dropped, the cases are caused by what is believed to a be a revertant of the attenuated strain of poliovirus that is used for vaccination in certain underdeveloped countries.

The Company intends to run both MPXV and EVD68 programs by initially evaluating the Company’s existing drug candidate library for effectiveness. If effective existing drug candidates are found, the Company intends to undertake additional work as well as seek additional financing, preferably via non-dilutive funding sources.

The Company plans on re-engaging our other lead antiviral program against herpes viruses, i.e. the HerpeCide™ program, as soon as it becomes feasible to conduct the corresponding antiviral human clinical studies. In the HerpeCide program alone, the Company has drug candidates against at least five indications at different stages of development. Of these, the Company is advancing the shingles drug candidate towards human clinical trials. The IND-enabling Safety/Toxicology studies required for doing so have been completed and the Company was in the process of preparing an IND application for this drug candidate when the SRAS-CoV-2 virus struck, whereupon we pivoted our efforts to respond to the threat of what has now become the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Company’s drug candidates against HSV-1 “cold sores” and HSV-2 “genital herpes” are in advanced studies and are expected to follow the shingles drug candidate into human clinical trials. Shingles in adults and chicken pox in children is caused by the same virus, namely VZV (Varicella-zoster virus, aka HHV-3 or human herpesvirus-3). There are estimated to be approximately 120,000-150,000 annual chickenpox cases in the USA in the post-vaccination-era, i.e. since childhood vaccination with the live attenuated varicella virus Oka strain has become standard. In addition, the Company has drugs in development against all influenzas in our FluCide™ program, as well as drug candidates against HIV/AIDS, Dengue, Ebola/Marburg, and other viruses.

The Company’s drugs are based on several patents, patent applications, provisional patent applications, and other proprietary intellectual property held by TheraCour Pharma, Inc. (“TheraCour”), to which the Company has broad, exclusive licenses. The first license agreement the Company executed with TheraCour on September 1, 2005 (“Exclusive License Agreement”), gave the Company an exclusive, worldwide license for the treatment of the following human viral diseases: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Influenza and Asian Bird Flu Virus. On February 15, 2010, the Company executed an Additional Agreement (“Additional License Agreement”) with TheraCour. Pursuant to the Additional License Agreement, the Company was granted exclusive licenses for technologies, developed by TheraCour, for the development of drug candidates for the treatment of Dengue viruses, Ebola/Marburg viruses, Japanese Encephalitis, viruses causing viral Conjunctivitis (a disease of the eye) and Ocular Herpes. In addition, on November 1, 2019, the Company entered into a world-wide, exclusive, sub-licensable, license (“VZV License Agreement”) to use, promote, offer for sale, import, export, sell and distribute drugs that treat VZV infections, using TheraCour’s proprietary as well as patented technology and intellectual property. The discovery of ligands and polymer materials as well as formulations, the chemistry and chemical characterization, as well as process development and related work will be performed by TheraCour under the same compensation terms as prior agreements between the parties, with no duplication of costs allowed. Upon commercialization, NanoViricides will pay 15% of net sales to TheraCour, as defined in the agreement. The Company was not required to make any upfront payments to TheraCour and agreed to the following milestone payments to TheraCour; the issuance of 75,000 shares of the Company’s Series A preferred stock upon the grant of an IND Application; $1,500,000 in cash upon completion of Phase I Clinical Trials; $2,500,000 in cash upon completion of Phase II clinical trials; and $5,000,000 in cash upon completion of Phase III clinical trials.

On September 9, 2021, the Company entered into a world-wide, exclusive, sub-licensable, license (“COVID-19 License Agreement”) to use, promote, offer for sale, import, export, sell and distribute drugs that treat COVID-19 infections, using TheraCour’s proprietary as well as patented technology and intellectual property. The discovery of ligands and polymer materials as well as formulations, the chemistry and chemical characterization, as well as process development and related work will be performed by TheraCour under the same compensation terms as prior agreements between the parties, with no duplication of costs allowed. Upon commercialization, NanoViricides will pay 15% of net sales to TheraCour, as defined in the agreement. The Company was not required to make any upfront cash payments to TheraCour and agreed to the following milestone payments to TheraCour: (i) the issuance of 100,000 shares of the Company’s Series A preferred stock within 30 days upon execution of this agreement; (ii) the issuance of 50,000 shares of the Company’s Series A preferred stock upon the approval of the Company's IND Application or its equivalent by a competent regulatory authority; (iii) $1,500,000 upon initiation of Phase I clinical trials, or its equivalent, for at least one licensed product within-the field on, or before, three (3) months from the date of the authority’s acceptance of the IND, or its equivalent; (iv) $2,000,000 in cash upon completion of Phase 1 clinical trials; (v)  $2,500,000 in cash upon completion of Phase IIA clinical trials, or, its equivalent; (vi) the issuance of 100,000 shares of the Company’s Series A preferred stock upon the initiation of Phase 3 clinical trials, or, its equivalent, for at least one licensed product within the field; and (vii) $5,000,000 in cash, or 500,000 shares of the Company’s Series A preferred stock upon completion of Phase III clinical trials, or its equivalent. Upon commercialization, NanoViricides will pay 15% of net sales to TheraCour, as defined in the agreement.