200 X Better than Tamiflu Against H5N1 Avian Flu?

In vitro activities of AviFluCide, specific to H5N1, and of FluCide, lead us to suggest that AviFluCide could be as much as 100-200X (10,000% to 20,000%) more efficacious in H5N1 avian influenza treatment than oseltamivir. Nanoviricides are being constructed against Rabies, Dengue virus and Hepatitis C virus. Our technology also enables the possibility of stockpiling one drug that can specifically attack a number of pathogens. Additionally, nanoviricides open up an interesting new approach to epidemic threat containment. Theoretically, a nanoviricide can be constructed against a field pathogen using antibody fragments as ligands, leading to the fastest possible response to a natural epidemic or bioterrorism threat.

At the recent Nanotech 2007 Conference in Santa Clara, the president of Nanoviricides unveiled an electron microcraph showing the destruction of murine CMV by a nanoviricide. Here is an abstract of the presentation.

Although Tamiflu is a relatively old antiviral drug, it is currently seen as the best defense against an avian flu outbreak/pandemic in humans.

Nanomedicine offers the ability to approach age-old medical problems from a fresh perspective. Nanotechnology opens the door to the perspectives of workers from several disciplines that contribute to nanomedical principles.

Although large pharmaceutical companies tend to fall into the type of unimaginative ruts that plague all large organisations, the ability of small focused startups in biotech and nanotech medicine allow the constant infusion of new ideas and techniques into the larger field of pharmacology and pharma-therapy.

This type of startup activity feeding into larger pre-existing industry is only possible in a culture that values independence of thought and action. Such a culture tolerates the inevitable risk that accompanies startups--venture capital, entrepreneurial risk, etc.

Such revolutionary activity could not occur so freely in cultures that value security over all else. That is why so many cutting-edge researchers tend to migrate away from nanny/security cultures to more open opportunity cultures.