NanoViricides (NYSE-A:NNVC) chief financial officer Meeta Vyas talked with Proactive about the company’s progress developing broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics and how its technology remains unaffected by global market turmoil.
Vyas explained that NanoViricides, based in Shelton, Connecticut, conducts all its research and development in-house, making it immune to international tariff changes.
The company's lead candidate, NV-387, is not a vaccine, but a broad-spectrum antiviral drug that works by mimicking the receptor sites used by over 90% of pathogenic viruses. These include influenza, RSV, Covid, and even smallpox.
Proactive: All right, welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom, and joining me now is Meeta Vyas. She is the chief financial officer for NanoViricides. Meeta, it's good to see you. How are you?
Meeta Vyas: I'm great. Thank you. Good to see you.
Good to see you as well. It's been a crazy couple of days around the world with what's going on in the administration in the United States. I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to the Chief Financial Officer about what's happening within the company. Let's begin with tariffs. Is that affecting your company in any way?
Thank you for asking. We are not affected by tariffs at all. So all these changes that are causing turmoil in the market don't affect us. We are a Shelton, Connecticut-based, USA-based company. We are doing all our R&D in Shelton, Connecticut. We have a fully owned facility, and our highest cost is our people — our scientists and our lab staff. So, we have no effect by tariffs. The entire pharmaceutical industry is getting lumped together, but we don't belong in that group.
Maybe remind everyone a little bit about what the company does, because I think that's important to talk about as well.
Yes. We are developing antiviral therapeutics. Our very broad-spectrum lead drug is NV-387. We are not a vaccine development company. We are a therapeutics development company. Why? Because viruses mutate away from vaccines. What our CEO and Chief Scientist discovered is that regardless of how viruses mutate, they land on the same receptor site. So we copy the receptor site, which is invariant to mutation.
Our lead drug NV-387 is based on heparan sulfate, which is the configuration used by more than 90% of pathogenic viruses. That’s why it’s broad-spectrum. It works against flu, RSV, Covid, even smallpox. We are excited because it’s a drug that — when you go to the doctor with a viral infection — you could get the same drug regardless of the virus. That’s why we feel we are a unique company, and our drug is very unique.
Is that the way HHS is pushing now with this new administration — toward alternatives to vaccines as well?
That's correct. That’s the second big thing causing turmoil in the marketplace. The prior administration had a vaccine-focused strategy to prevent pandemic viruses. We are lucky that the current HHS administration is taking an integrated approach. They understand that viruses mutate away from vaccines and that therapeutics are a critical part of pandemic preparedness. We are excited that there is now a balanced approach in Washington. Regardless of the upheaval, it leads to a balanced view of our drugs and our applications for preventing pandemics like measles, bird flu, RSV, Covid, and smallpox. Smallpox has been eradicated in the U.S., but it remains a bioterrorism threat, so preparedness is needed.
I also want to ask you — there was a recent story out, and I’ve talked to your CEO about this as well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to invest about $100 million to combat avian influenza. Is that something the company would be pursuing as well?
We love that news because H5N1 is something our drug can address. I don’t want to talk too much about our plans related to it, but we are definitely interested. We are excited that the USDA has taken over the responsibility for fighting bird flu in poultry. Of course, that affects the average American who’s paying too much for eggs due to culling. We are excited that there’s now a total focus with funding for therapeutics and vaccines against bird flu. That’s part of helping the public by reducing culling, increasing egg supply, and lowering prices. We think it’s great news for the company.
It sounds like it’s going to be a very busy rest of 2025. There’s a lot happening within the company.
Yes, that’s right. We are positioned to deliver on proof of concept, which is Phase 2. We’re conducting Phase 2 trials on NV-387, this time against smallpox, because it proves the concept and is a very targeted trial. We are very optimistic about the results because Phase 1 was phenomenal — no adverse effects. So, very exciting.
Meeta, thank you so much. Great update for the company. Really appreciate your time.
It’s our pleasure. We really think investors should be looking at the future, not the past, and not get worried about the current turmoil when they look at NNVC. NNVC is dynamic technology. It’s groundbreaking technology developed by this company to fight 90% of viral infections. That’s a remarkable achievement.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style