Nasal spray cuts Covid viral load by 97%: Lancet
New Delhi, July 14
The administration of FabiSpray, a nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS), in unvaccinated adult patients with co-morbid conditions reduced Covid-19 viral load by 93 to 97 per cent, a new study published in the Lancet Regional Health, South Asia, has demonstrated.
Launched in Feb
- Nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS) was launched in India under the brand name FabiSpray in February
- NONS blocks the entry of the virus into the nasal passage and prevents its replication
The study involved the administration of FabiSpray which the Indian drug regulator approved this February for emergency use in Covid management.
NONS, self-administered in non-hospitalised adult Asian patients with mild symptomatic Covid infections, had a statistically significant greater mean reduction in SARS-CoV2 viral load over the seven days of treatment compared to patients who did not receive the spray, the study says.
Efficacy was comparable in the unvaccinated population, who lacked the benefits of vaccine immunity. Those participants vaccinated demonstrated no impact on the treatment effect of NONS, as expected, due to the evolving Covid disease state — increased virus transmissibility, shortened infectivity period and inconsistent vaccine effectiveness with each new SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern.
“However, the high-risk population defined as unvaccinated under 45 years of age, or those with one or more comorbidities in the present study, demonstrated a profound SARS-CoV-2 viral burden reduction of 93.7% at 24 hours and 99% at 48 hours with NONS,” study author Monika Tandon of Glenmark said. The study, by Glenmark, covered 306 patients almost equally divided into the NONS and the placebo groups.
“NONS had a rapid effect of viral RNA reduction — a 74 fold greater reduction compared to placebo at 48 hours of treatment. Clinically, this is striking in that the patients had high baseline viral RNA concentrations associated with presumably the highest risk for additional illness progression,” the study says.
Overall, it showed that a greater proportion of patients in the NONS group became qualitative RT-PCR negative compared to placebo.
“In the NONS group, 53 (82.8%) subjects became negative compared to 46 (66.7%) by eighth day and this difference was statistically significant.
“The median time to qualitative RT-PCR conversion, from positive to negative was significantly shorter in the NONS group by four days compared to placebo (three vs seven days),” authors said.
