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Firebrick Pharma’s (ASX:FRE) Nasodine germicidal nasal spray product – which is based on PVP-iodine, just like Betadine – promises to shake up the ecosystem of products treating the common cold.
Company Executive Chair Dr Peter Molloy, who originally developed Betadine Sore Throat Gargle in Australia, has previously outlined to HotCopper why Nasodine is superior to other cold treatments.
So how is it different?
Germicide, not a suppressant
The compound is a germicide and not a decongestant or cough suppressant, meaning that unlike other cold treatment drugs, Nasodine actually targets the cause of the common cold.
Nasodine is ultimately a disease prevention and treatment product, standing out from the rest.
Molloy has long had a hunch a topical antiseptic applied to the nasal cavity would be not only be safer than taking pills, but also more effective.
So far, he says study data backs up this hunch.
Helpfully, the biotech company is ready to go full scale commercial – Nasodine Nasal Spray is already available in the US and more recently Singapore (in recent history, Firebrick has successfully defended its PVP-iodine based nasal spray patent in Singapore after a third party began to sell a similar product.)
Enter Human Metapneumovirus
The last time Molloy spoke to HotCopper, we looked at how the recent COVID-19 debacle had heightened awareness, for better or worse, of global disease spreading broadly (as well as governmental responses to such outbreaks).
We’d suggested we wouldn’t be far away from the next pandemic risk event – and that’s exactly what we’re looking at now, though it’s important to note the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not yet issued any kind of alert about the spread of the disease.
Enter China’s Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV). This is the latest disease to come from the world’s second largest economy. Fortunately, so far, we’re not seeing the same kind of rapid transmission or fatality rates we saw in late 2019.
However, the condition isn’t necessarily ‘new’. The HMPV virus was first isolated in 2001 and has appeared occasionally during various winter seasons. What’s new is the sudden growth in cases currently hitting China and elsewhere. Consider that it’s winter in many parts of the world.
The condition is similar to COVID-19 in that it produces flu-like symptoms, and just like COVID, flu and other respiratory viruses, it is spread mainly by airborne droplets. When an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes, droplets containing the virus are released into the air; tiny microdroplets can hang in the air for hours. Typically, you breathe in these droplets and become infected.
Here, Nasodine’s implications are obvious: it’s a germicide that is proven to kill HMPV in under 60 seconds in lab testing; when applied to the nasal passage it should protect you from the infection or at least stop it in the early stages.
Bird Flu is perhaps of more concern
So that’s Metapneumovirus. But it’s actually the United States of America where a more pressing threat is of concern.
Late last year, the first patient in the US to die of a recent bird flu outbreak was officially recorded. As of Friday, January 17, 2024, the American Center for Disease Control (CDC) cites 67 confirmed human cases.
But it’s the capacity for further spread to humans that is of greater priority than the treatment of those 67 patients. For while no person-to-person spread of bird flu has yet been recorded, the disease is prevalent in cattle across multiple states in the US.
Meanwhile, poultry flocks and mammals are vulnerable to ‘sporadic spreads’ from the wild bird population. And this is the biggest concern: The particularly strong bird flu strain ‘H5’ is currently considered ‘widespread‘ among wild bird populations in the US, according to the CDC.
What happens next remains to be seen, but if human to human transmission and a new pandemic ensues, Nasodine Nasal Spray is already available in the US and it promises to kill bird flu virus just as quickly as normal flu and HMPV – with no risk of resistance to Nasodine. With the ongoing parade of pandemic threats, a tappable market for Nasodine isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Biotech through 2025
Seeing as we’re talking forward-looking, it’s both a mix of predictable and wholly speculative angles of what lies ahead for the Australian pharmaceutical (and biotech) space in CY2025.
It goes without saying we can expect to keep seeing ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) remain a dominant theme as companies try to jam chatbots into everything and everything.
It also goes without saying Trump’s looming ‘2.0’ administration in the US is good news for believers in hands-off small government and conservative regulators. Robert F Kennedy’s appointment as health overlord has been quiet in the press lately, but there’ll be lots of eyes there.
One could easily envisage a shift away from Big Pharma vaccines as the sole acceptable solution for pandemics, with governments becoming more receptive to approaches previously shunned during the COVID era. One of these is Nasodine, which could find it itself readily deployed as a frontline pandemic defence, especially while vaccine development takes place. Stockpiling is not out of the question.
Can Australians become believers in Nasodine?
It may be a while before it’s available on Australian pharmacy shelves, but in the meantime, Australians can buy it online from Singapore, and, according to Firebrick Pharma, many of its shareholders have done so.
It’s sold in Singapore as a ‘nasal antiseptic’ for use while commuting, air travel or any other situation where someone feels concerned about airborne germs. That sounds like a concern that most of us share!
Firebrick Pharma last traded at 6.1 cents.
