Destiny Pharma and SporeGen have announced that Vietnamese biotechnology company Huro Biotech has acquired non-exclusive manufacturing rights for SPOR-COV bacillus nasal spray as well as exclusive marketing rights to the nasal spray in Vietnam. Huro has also launched an OTC nasal spray in Vietnam based on SPOR-COV technology, the companies said. In September 2020, Destiny and SporeGen announced that development of SPOR-COV would be partly funded by a £800,000 grant from Innovate UK.
According to the announcement, Huro is develop the GMP manufacturing process and performing other development work for the nasal spray as part of the deal for the rights. In addition, Huro will pay royalties on retail sales of the recently launched nasal spray, which it is marketing as “Speromed.”
Destiny and SporeGen also announced that preclinical research funded by the grant and performed at the University of Liverpool and at several CROs has demonstrated that SPOR-COV has potential uses to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, to reduce symptoms of influenza, and to serve as an adjunct for vaccines.
SporeGen CEO Simon Cutting commented, “These data validate the SPOR-COV platform’s effectiveness against multiple pandemic strains of flu and emerging SARS‑CoV‑2 ‘variants of concern’ by targeting the innate immune system. The SPOR-COV approach, unlike traditional vaccination, has been shown to not be impaired by new mutational variants. We are very pleased with these data and the potential benefit to patients and are very excited at the prospect of further development of the SPOR-COV platform.”
Destiny Pharma CEO Neil Clark said, “This Innovate UK funded research project has delivered some very exciting data and we are now discussing next steps with our partners. There is still a clear need for better pandemic preparedness for viral infections such as COVID-19 and influenza and the SPOR-COV product and the associated technology has great potential to deliver new treatments that are safe, effective, low cost and easy to use.”
Huro Biotech Chairman Khanh Nguyen stated, “As a pioneering pharmaceutical company focusing on affordable and sustainable health solutions from probiotics and postbiotics for LMICs, HURO values the opportunity to develop SPOR-COV into an innovative product improving public health in Vietnam. We would like to congratulate SporeGen and Destiny Pharma on the most recent encouraging data of SPOR-COV, which will create a solid foundation for further impact in the future.”
Read the Destiny Pharma press release.
