Altamira Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYTO) reported positive efficacy data from testing its Bentrio nasal spray in vitro against the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Bentrio is a drug-free nasal spray for protection against airborne viruses and allergens, which has previously shown positive outcomes in vitro against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and its Delta variant.
For the Omicron variant study, Bentrio or saline control were applied in the same type of assay that was used for the previous studies, based on reconstituted nasal epithelium cells from human donors.
Compared with the Delta variant, the Omicron variant showed much faster viral replication and a more rapid increase in the viral titer, as measured by the median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID500, which had peaked within 24 hours. Prophylactic application of Bentrio starting 10 minutes prior to viral inoculation resulted in a significant reduction of 89.5% in viral titer after 24 hours, compared with the saline-treated controls (p-value<0.01).
When the treatment application was started only 24 hours after viral inoculation, after the viral titer had already peaked, application of Bentrio resulted in a significant reduction in viral titer over the following days (overall p<0.01), compared with saline controls, reaching 87.1% at its maximum on day three.
“The latest set of in vitro data add to the growing body of evidence suggesting Bentrio’s potential protective effects against SARS-CoV-2,” Thomas Meyer, Altamira’s founder, chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
“Importantly, they provide further confirmation that Bentrio appears to be effective across virus variants, suggesting broad applicability,” he added.
As previously reported, Altamira has initiated a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the ability of Bentrio to reduce the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the nose, alleviate COVID-19 signs and symptoms, and decrease the frequency of COVID-19 related hospital admissions.
The new COVAMID study will enroll 136 COVID-19 patients, confirmed through a positive PCR test, who will be randomized at a 2:1:1 ratio to receive for 10 days either Bentrio, placebo or no treatment, followed by a 10-day observation phase.
