A new study conducted by Research Dive has found that the global push to detect antiviral therapies is driving a market that is estimated to reach $66M by 2027, at a CAGR of 3.1%. North American efforts are dominating market share and are expected to account for $19M by 2027.
Sales of antiviral drugs tick up
Sales of antiviral drugs and related services are on the uptick as demand for interventions that reduce the replication of viruses soar. Such treatments are under development by market leaders such as NanoViricides, Pfizer, T2 Biosystems, Sorrento Therapeutics, and Moderna. While COVID-19 treatments are certainly a priority, various other types of viral infections including HIV, herpes, hepatitis, and influenza viruses are also under the microscope.
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting a huge amount of pressure on medicine stocks and healthcare providers are bringing out every possible tool to find new treatments for COVID-19. Scientific equipment manufacturers such as BMG Labtech, which develops innovative, high-quality, and reliable microplate reader instrumentation, are also seeing a rise in demand for their products.
Antiviral drug use is growing significantly, bringing an increasing demand from both patients and governments alike for crucial, life-saving medicines. Researchers and scientists are doing all they can to bring new antiviral compounds to market. The demand is particularly high in the Asia-Pacific region, which is heading towards generating $17M+ by 2027. Previous decades saw antiviral therapies surge to meet the demands of the prevalence of HIV. The COVID-19 emergency has now supplanted that, with a massive impact on the antiviral therapies market.
Growth is mainly attributable to rising research and development activities as multinational companies endeavor to produce suitable antiviral drugs for the treatment of the coronavirus. Many manufacturers are following tangents towards novel technology in an effort to earn a market stronghold position in the global market.
Nanotechnology antiviral heading into drug design and development
In this respect, nanotechnology is driving into antiviral drug design and development. Innovations in nanotechnology are steering towards cost-effective drugs that treat viral infections, introducing immense opportunities to market growth in the coming years. Nanotechnology is emerging as one of the most capable technologies likely to contribute to antiviral drug development as it is able to handle several concurrent viral infections effectively.
NanoViricides is one company working to develop effective broad-spectrum antiviral therapies off a novel nanomedicines platform. The company credits U.S. President Joe Biden’s and his administration’s commitment to fighting the pandemic with the emergence of new approaches and fresh ideas.
NanoViricides says that the scientific community and regulatory efforts are focussing on vaccines, antibodies, and re-developing pre-existing drugs. The company says in a press release that this has resulted in a situation where vaccines are being deployed while the virus continues to mutate and new vaccine resistant versions emerge.
The company says it is focusing instead on broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics and believes this will minimize virus variants escaping current remedies. Vaccines at present require constant updates and re-inoculation campaigns to keep pace with ongoing changes in the virus. NanoViricides believes solutions based on nanomedicines will make the ongoing development of vaccine updates and re-inoculation campaigns obsolete. The company is enabling a broad-spectrum drug development approach which it says will remain effective as future variants of SARS-CoV-2 evolve.
The company’s trademark technology is based on what it calls “biomimetic engineering” that replicates features of the cellular receptor of the virus in humans. At work, what happens is that as the virus mutates, all its variants bind to the same receptor in the same fashion. Therefore, a nanoviricide medicine would remain effective against all and any variants of the virus.
NanoViricides says it is the only company developing antiviral treatments designed to attack the virus and disable it from infecting human cells and, simultaneously, block the reproduction of the virus already present inside cells. It describes this strategy as a “two-pronged attack” on coronavirus—an attack both inside and outside the cell. The company says a drug based on this approach could result in cure for coronaviruses and other non-latent viruses.
NanoViricides says its COVID-19 drug candidates entered safety pharmacology studies required prior to any human clinical trials in November, 2019, and that they anticipate a risk report based on that imminently. The company is preparing an FDA Pre-Investigational New Drug Application (pre-IND) application and is looking for opportunities for human clinical trials. It is also preparing clinical trial protocols necessary for filing of an Investigational New Drug (IND) with the FDA.