Nanoveu says there are other ways to clean your phone from corona, shares fly

Smartphone screen protector maker Nanoveu (ASX:NVU) is running hard this morning after receiving more proof that its antiviral screen cover can kill coronavirus — just not the one everyone is talking about.

Montana lab Bioscience Laboratories found the antiviral technology, once added to a phone screen cover, kills 99.99 per cent of a coronavirus strain that causes the common cold within 30 minutes.

Coronavirus strain OC43 is one of seven coronaviruses that infect humans, a list that includes COVID-19.

The Nanoveu stock opened up 82 per cent at 15.5c.

The company has already had its screen covers successfully tested for MHV-A59, a mouse coronavirus that can be used as a surrogate for human versions.

It plans to use these test results in a submission to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to register the cover as a Class I Medical Device.

The Class I Medical Device status is given to low-risk and non-invasive medical equipment, such as surgical retractors, has a two-day approval period and will allow the phone and screen covers to be marketed as ‘antiviral’.

Nanoveu also wants US Environmental Protection Agency approval, which is expected to take nine weeks.

The company expects to start sales late in the June quarter.

Nanoveu listed in 2018 with a screen protector that can make Apple and Google phone screens 3D. Antiviral covers is one of its later iterations.

In other ASX health & biotech news:

Nyrada (ASX:NYR) has shown in a preclinical study that its lead candidate compounds can cross the blood-brain-barrier in the intact uninjured animal brain, a positive sign in its quest to make a drug that can treat secondary brain damage following head trauma and stroke.

In lab testing, Exopharm (ASX:EX1) said its drug delivery platform had been proved during in vitro, or test tube, testing that it could deliver therapeutic drugs into target cells. A study using its system loaded with anticancer drug doxorubicin killed considerably more cancer cells than a similar dosage of the drug by itself, it said.

Liver monitoring device maker Resonance Health (ASX: RHT) has filed a patent application for its novel Antisense Oligonucleotides (ASOs) to treat liver related disease, thanks to complementary research from its involvement in measuring biomarkers for human conditions and diseases that affect the liver.