WEST HAVEN, Conn.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–NanoViricides, inc. (OTC BB: NNVC) (the “Company”) announced today that its President, Dr. Anil Diwan, will present an overview of the company at the 14th Annual BIO CEO and Investor Conference. The Conference is being held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City (bio.org/events/conferences/14th-annual-bio-ceo-investor-conference).

NanoViricides, inc. presentation is scheduled for 1pm today, February 13th.

NanoViricides, inc., is developing a broad range of anti-viral therapeutics against a number of different viruses. this is enabled by its novel nanoviricides® platform technology. a nanoviricide is designed to look like the cell surface to the virus, complete with the “landing sites” that the virus seeks on the cell surface to bind to the cell and thereafter enter the cell. These “landing sites” are designed into the nanoviricide by chemically incorporating “ligands” to which the virus is expected to bind. The Company strives to develop ligands that closely mimic the native landing sites of the virus. even as a virus mutates constantly, these landing sites to which the virus binds remain the same. The Company therefore believes that its drugs would be effective against a large range of strains and mutations of a given virus.

The Company has recently declared a clinical drug candidate against influenza in its FluCide™ program, namely, NV-INF-1. The Company has also requested a pre-IND Meeting with the US FDA to discuss the development plan for NV-INF-1.

in addition, the Company has developed drug candidates against HIV, Dengue, and Adenoviral Epidemic Kerato-Conjunctivitis (EKC) that have all shown extremely high efficacies in pre-clinical animal studies. The Company has also developed drug candidates against Herpes that have shown strong efficacies in pre-clinical studies. These additional four commercially important programs are at pre-clinical candidate optimization stage. The Company has several R&D programs against many other viruses including Ebola/Marburg and Rabies viruses.

The Company thus has an extremely broad drug pipeline, enabled by its novel, first-in-class, platform technology.

The Company is planning on two separate indications for NV-INF-1: High strength dosage form for hospitalized patients with severe influenza, and a single course therapy for the out-patients with less severe influenza.

in the USA alone, there are approximately 300,000 severe influenza cases that require hospitalization every year resulting in approximately 40,000 deaths. Expert physician advice suggests that the dosage form should be a high strength solution suitable for “piggy-back” incorporation into the standard IV fluid supplement system that is commonly used in hospitalized patients. Since current influenza treatments have limited effectiveness in these patients because of the severity of the infection and the stage of progression, there is a significant unmet medical need for the treatment of hospitalized influenza patients, which include immunocompromised patients.

NV-INF-1 promises to be a highly effective anti-influenza drug, based on the extremely high efficacy observed in animal studies, and the Company believes that it would receive rapid and widespread acceptance for the treatment of hospitalized patients with severe influenza.

The Company is planning the out-patient treatment as a single injection that a medical office can easily administer when the patient goes for the first clinical visit. The Company believes that in most instances no follow-on treatment would be necessary. this expectation is based on the following results from its animal studies: (1) the extremely high treatment effectiveness in inhibiting the cycle of infection, virus expansion and spread of infection and, (2) the significantly long lasting effects of the drug treatment after the drug is discontinued.

a single course treatment for out-patients is a highly sought after goal in influenza therapeutics. During the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic, approximately 61 million cases of out-patient influenza were estimated in the USA alone.

The Company’s anti-influenza clinical drug candidate is expected to be effective against a majority of strains and types of influenzas including novel epidemic influenza strains such as the one encountered in 2009-2010 (so called “swine flu”); seasonal flu such as H1N1, H3N2; highly pathogenic types such as H7N and H9N; as well as the highly lethal type, so called “bird flu” or H5N1. all influenza viruses use the same common receptor to bind to human cells. Therefore the Company believes that its influenza drug candidate should work against most of the influenza viruses.

The market size for anti-influenza drugs is currently estimated to be approximately $4-$7 billion worldwide. The Company believes that if its FluCide™ drug becomes available, the influenza drug market size could expand substantially. The market size for OTC medications for control of influenza symptoms is approximately $2.1 billion dollars annually in the USA, and about £0.6 billion (about $1 billion) in the UK (source: mintel.com/press-centre/press-releases/410/consumers-cough-up-for-remedies-as-flu-season-starts-early). Similar large market sizes are reported for other countries across the globe.

The Company has previously reported on the extremely high efficacies of its optimized FluCide™ drug candidates. The Company is now advancing one of the tested optimized FluCide candidates as the clinical drug candidate after performing substantial further analysis.

About NanoViricides:

NanoViricides, inc. (nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for viral 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 which 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 and other regulatory authorities. 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.

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder of the lungs that affects about 34 million Americans. the number of people with asthma has increased significantly over the past three decades, and by 2025 this number is expected to grow by more than 100 million.

Many people with asthma depend on the use of daily medications to control symptoms. these medications include inhaled steroids, which are not only hugely expensive but can also be associated with significant side effects, including respiratory infections and headaches. given cost and side effects of asthma medications, there is great incentive to identify other means to prevent and treat asthma.

A recent article in the journal Alternative Therapies looked at the cost and benefits of an integrative medicine approach to treating asthma.

This study was conducted at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing, an integrative medicine center at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City; CCHH has had extensive experience in treating patients with asthma.

In the study, 154 people with mild to severe asthma were randomized into two groups. the first group was continued on its usual prescription meds for asthma.

The second group took its usual asthma meds and those in the group were also trained to incorporate the following integrative medicine practices into their daily routines:

• Attend two nutrition classes where they learned about foods that can trigger asthma and inflammation. They then engaged in an elimination diet for two to four weeks to identify their own particular dietary triggers, and eliminated those foods from their diet.

• Took daily fish oil capsules containing 860 mg of EPA and 580 mg of DHA.

• Took 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily.

• Took a standardized extract of hops, an anti- inflammatory herb.

• Attended two yoga classes and also learned how to practice the healing breath work of yoga known as pranayama; they were encouraged to do this on a daily basis.

• Attended an expressive journaling session where they wrote about the most traumatic stressful event of their lives. (Expressive writing like this has been shown in some studies to decrease symptoms of asthma.)

All participants were followed for six months. At the conclusion of the study, people in the treatment group were found to have significant improvements in quality-of-life measurements compared with the control group, and their overall physical and mental health were also improved.

Pulmonary function tests, however, did not show significant changes in either group over time. the researchers did not measure any changes in the use of prescription asthma medications between the two groups.

The interventions were well tolerated and produced no significant side effects, though several participants in the study group did report mild headache, nausea and fatigue, presumably from the supplements; none of them dropped out of the study, however.

One cautionary note here – hop extracts contain plant estrogens, so people with hormone-sensitive cancer should probably avoid them.

The cost of creating this group program, which was delivered in a community health center, was approximately $260 per participant, which is a bargain considering the cost of medications used to treat asthma, as well as the cost of clinic and emergency room visits for people with asthma.

The authors concluded that this “low-cost, low-risk lifestyle intervention can significantly improve both disease-specific and overall quality of life in adults with asthma over a six-month period.”

While this study had its methodological challenges, it was still an encouraging exploration of the power of lifestyle changes to improve symptoms and self-efficacy in people with a chronic illness like asthma.

Given the cost-effectiveness of these interventions, as well as their overall safety profile, it offers some promising adjunctive treatments to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life in people with asthma.

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Drs. Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden are medical directors of Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine program. Have a question related to alternative medicine? E-mail adrenaline@sacbee.com.