HALO THERAPEUTICS LTD

Halo Therapeutics develops safe pancoronavirus antiviral drugs for Covid-19 that can be administered by patients.

The company was founded in 2021 by scientists from the University of Bristol who found that exposing the coronavirus to a free fatty acid called linoleic acid locks the virus’s spike protein into a closed, non-infective form – stopping it in its tracks.

Free fatty acids are already manufactured at huge scale for the nutritional industry and have a decades-long track record of use in the pharma industry as inactive ingredients. They have an iron-clad safety record, says the company.

Halo Therapeutics' antiviral is delivered via a nasal spray. It should stop the coronavirus multiplying, halting it in its tracks before it can reach a patient’s respiratory tract and lungs.

And because it is delivered by a simple nasal spray it can be used at home.

The team developed a stable formulation, established manufacturing pipelines and designed the spray delivery apparatus in nine months – a process that would usually take two to three years.

The team is seeking funding to take its ground-breaking pan-coronavirus antiviral to clinical trials.