The Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX: SPL) share price has surged higher on Thursday following the release of a big announcement.
At the time of writing, the biopharmaceutical company's shares are up 15% to $1.50.
What did Starpharma announce?
This morning Starpharma announced that significant commercial and regulatory progress has been made for its Viraleze nasal spray.
According to the release, the European Union (EU) regulatory dossier is now more than 90% complete, which means Viraleze is on track to be registered and ready for market in the first quarter of calendar year 2021.
This is earlier than the company was expecting and had previously announced.
What is Viraleze?
Viraleze will be marketed as an antiviral nasal spray for SARS-CoV-2, which is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
It will also be marketed as an antiviral nasal spray for other important respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV.
Management believes Viraleze will "form part of a range of preventative measures such as masks and other PPE, and is complimentary (sic) to COVID-19 vaccines to further reduce risk of infection."
What's next?
Starpharma has revealed that its pre-launch commercialisation activities for Viraleze are well advanced with input from Boston Consulting Group.
Activities are initially focusing on direct to consumer and business-to-business channels to facilitate the most rapid entry to market. In addition to this, the company is continuing partnering discussions.
Europe will be the first geographic region for the Viraleze launch. After which, Starpharma plans to leverage its European registration to roll-out the product into other markets including Australia as quickly as possible.
As part of the go-to-market planning, qualitative and quantitative consumer research was undertaken in Europe during November.
The research from ~1,500 consumers confirmed that the product proposition for Viraleze is highly appealing. It also found that consumers would use the product in a wide range of settings. This includes in crowded areas such as shopping centres, elevators, workplaces, and public transport.
Starpharma's CEO, Dr Jackie Fairley, commented: "We know from the positive market research that VIRALEZE has the ability to restore confidence and encourage people to resume everyday professional and recreational activities. Our market research also shows that the compelling features and convenience of VIRALEZE are highly appealing to consumers."
"The distribution challenges of COVID-19 vaccines are well documented including the timing of wide-spread availability and adoption. Even after a vaccine becomes widely available, social distancing, PPE and other measures will continue to be important and VIRALEZE complements other prevention strategies, including vaccines. In November, the World Health Organisation stated that someone died every 17 seconds from COVID-19 in Europe. It is with the greatest urgency that Starpharma is working to make this product ready for market as quickly as possible in 1Q CY2021," she added.
