The world we live in today has come to be known as “the age of biology”, mainly because of the incredible biotech focused scientific breakthroughs that have allowed for modern science to treat diseases, illnesses and viruses like never before. The first major breakthrough came many years ago (back in 1990) when humans successfully sequenced the human genome. This project took over 13 years to complete and cost $3 billion. Fast forward to now and this same project can be completed in a single day with an approximate cost of only $1,000. The point here is through the advancements within the biotech space companies are now able to produce life changing drugs and treatment options that were previously thought impossible to create or simply just too expensive to make.
Today, the life science industry is overflowing with companies leveraging cutting edge technology to produce a wide variety of new treatment options. Not all these biotech companies will be successful and investors need to understand that some companies won’t live up to expectations, that said, with revolutionary technology now proving it can be applied to create real world treatment options investors looking for market beating returns need to be looking for companies in this newly revived biotech industry.
Company Profile
NanoViricides Inc. (NASDAQ:NNVC), is a development stage biotech company quickly becoming a leader in the development of next generation nanomedicine drugs used to fight viruses. As most know when a virus enters the body the immune system springs to action and produces antibodies to help fight off the invading virus. However, a good proportion of the population have compromised immune systems which prevent this natural process from happening. And even with a properly functioning immune system doesn’t guarantee it will work effectively across all types of viruses. In fact, viruses that cause severe diseases are able to do so precisely because they have learnt to control and block our immune responses! This includes SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, the cause of COVID-19 global pandemic that shows no signs of abating. To overcome these problems, NanoViricides is producing specially formulated nanoviricides to attack virus particles, on the same sites the virus uses to bind to cells, effectively blocking reinfection and providing a more effective layer of protection than what antibodies or immunotherapeutic options are currently capable of.
The company is preparing for commercialization with their 100% owned full scale cGMP compliant manufacturing facility capable of producing both the drug substance and drug product. Further, this manufacturing hub has the capacity to support production for all of NanoViricides drug programs, successfully providing the company with a steep competitive advantage in the way of accelerating the drug development process, as well as creating significant cost savings. Management estimates their current facility will be able to support $100-500 million in revenue per year.
NanoViricides Ramps up For Its First Human Clinical Trial to Treat COVID-19 with Two New Drug Candidates
The company has bolstered their balance sheet in the past several months to prepare for their first human trial of their promising drug candidate NV-Cov-2 that will be used to treat COVID-19. NanoViricides has labeled this drug candidate the “re-infection blocker” and this treatment will act as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug making the escape and escalation of variants within the body highly unlikely. So far, NV-CoV-2 has gone through safety and toxicity studies with results showing it can be administered to human patients without adverse effects.
This treatment option will come with a great deal of optionality, as the company plans to produce NV-Cov-2 in the form of oral gummies, injection, infusion, as well as direct lung inhalation. Most notably, the oral gummies will be directed at younger children who may struggle with receiving injections. And what’s more, the direct lung inhalation method will provide a way for patients who are severely ill to benefit from a highly concentrated dose to the most severely affected area – the lungs, helping to minimize the lung viral load and associated damage, significantly improving chances of recovery.
NanoViricides’ second drug candidate NV-CoV-2-R will expand on their original treatment NV-CoV-2 by adding Remdesivir within it. This will further strengthen the efficacy of the drug candidates in two ways. Firstly, NV-CoV-2-R will directly attack extracellular viruses to break the re-infection cycle, and secondly, it will attack the intracellular reproduction of the virus effectively breaking the replication cycle. Should both these cycles be broken, theoretically speaking, it would result in a cure for the virus.
Thoughts on Valuation
As they stand right now NanoViricides has approximately $19.89 million in cash and cash equivalents, meaning they have more than enough liquid assets on hand to fund at least one of their upcoming human trials. Additionally, the company has virtually no debt, and in the 3-month period ending September 30 NanoViricides spent only $0.72 million for operating activities, further showing their operational efficiencies and ability to manage costs. The capability to treat COVID-19 and provide a solution for the mutated strains that keep popping up across the world is a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity. And with a current market cap of only $55 million NanoViricides is showing signs of being exceptionally undervalued.
Key Takeaway
“The New age of biology” has just begun, and companies like NanoViricides are leading the way in this revolution. The company through leveraging their nanomedicine is tackling one of the biggest problems in the world today; stopping the spread of the constant mutations from a life-threatening virus.
So far, all signs are pointing to NanoViricides COVID-19 treatments to progress in their studies, and should they become approved for production that will open the floodgates to one of the biggest and most exciting market opportunities in the world today. Plus, with a state-of-the-art fully operational manufacturing facility NanoViricides already has the infrastructure in place to commercialize their products at mass scale. This combination is rare for such a young and fast-growing biotech company and investors should appreciate the operational flexibility and growth potential that awaits them.
It won’t be long before this little-known life sciences company sees their share price roar as they gain attention from the rest of Wall Street, investors who are aware of NanoViricides today should realize the opportunity of buying a company who is just starting out on a very promising biotech uprising.