30 Innovative Brands of the Year 2023
The Silicon Review
“Our nitric oxide drugs will be how we treat patients for the next 100 years and will change the landscape of healthcare and the management of chronic disease.”
Nitric oxide (NO) is a gas found in nature and made in the body. The discovery of this "miracle molecule" won the Nobel Prize in 1998 and was named "Molecule of the Year" in 1992. However, research suggests that over time, the body’s ability to naturally create nitric oxide diminishes a problem that Dr. Bryan has dedicated his career to solving through his company, Nitric Oxide innovations LLC. Nitric Oxide Innovations (NOi) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing nitric oxide drugs through the FDA.
Dr. Nathan S. Bryan, CEO of Nitric Oxide innovations, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review on how his company is saving millions of lives by leveraging Nitric Oxide based therapeutics to treat human disease.
Interview Highlights
Q. Why was Nitric Oxide innovations LLC (NOi) born? What pain points did you set out to solve?
Nitric Oxide Innovations was formed in order to bring to market safe and effective nitric oxide-based drug therapies based on my more than 20 years of research, discoveries and patents on nitric oxide. Every major chronic disease, from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer's disease, has a commonality, reduced blood flow, inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune dysfunction. Nitric oxide controls and regulates all four of these responses. Rather than targeting symptoms or the consequences of disease, our focus is to identify the root cause of disease and then correct that.
Q. What makes NOi successful? What are its focus areas?
There are many things that make NOi successful. First, just like any successful company, we have great and innovative technology, and we have great people. We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company singularly focused on bringing to market safe and effective nitric oxide drugs. We have patents and technology rights licensed from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. We have more than10 years in proof of principle and safety data in humans.
Q. Can you introduce us to your innovative services? What are their key features?
NOi has patented innovative technology that delivers bioactive nitric oxide gas in the form of a solid-dose, orally disintegrating lozenge. Our technology is the first of its kind, producing physiological amounts of nitric oxide as the lozenge dissolves in the mouth and rapidly distributes throughout the body, opening blood vessels, reducing inflammation, and addressing the root cause of a wide range of human diseases. NOi has also developed a dual chamber topical delivery system for nitric oxide for the treatment of diabetic and pressure ulcers. There has been no innovation in wound care in over 50 years. Our topical nitric oxide drug is a revolutionary advancement in wound care. First, the nitric oxide produced kills any infection in the wound. Secondly, the nitric oxide causes an increase in blood flow directly to the wound bed, allowing for tissue granulation and wound healing. Our drug discovery program is based on replacing and repleting a missing molecule, nitric oxide. Unlike most other drugs, which are synthetic molecules designed to inhibit a biochemical reaction and always cause side effects, we deliver physiological amounts of nitric oxide recapitulating what the body normally does. Therefore, we have not seen nor do we expect any side effects from our drugs. This has never been done before in medicine.
Q. What can you tell us about NOviricid? What makes it revolutionary?
Noviricid is an early treatment for at-risk patients with COVID-19. The Corona virus enters our body through attachment, typically in the airway epithelium. Our body’s normal response is to mobilize our immune cells to the site of attachment and infection. The immune cells then generate nitric oxide, and the nitric oxide prevents the virus from replicating and propagating throughout our body and making us sick. However, in patients that cannot make nitric oxide, i.e., the elderly, African Americans, people with diabetes, a previous heart attack, obesity, kidney and lung disease, they cannot mobilize their immune system; their immune cells do not make nitric oxide, and as a result, the virus avoids the immune system, replicates, and rapidly propagates throughout the body, and people get really sick with vascular inflammation, loss of oxygen saturation, and hypoxemia leading to death. We know the entire etiology of COVID-19 is a result of nitric oxide insufficiency. Our nitric oxide-generating drug, Noviricid, provides a source of nitric oxide that at-risk patients cannot make, thereby preventing the rapid progression of disease.
Q. Will NOi be expanding, bringing on any new services that we should be aware of?
Yes, our mission is to develop nitric oxide drugs for every unmet medical need or disease that is poorly managed with drug therapy today. We currently have drug programs for ischemic heart disease, ischemic, non-obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA), Alzheimer's disease, and topical drugs for diabetic and pressure ulcers. Other drug develop programs that will be initiated in the future are ones for ischemic stroke, migraines, transient ischemic attacks (TIA), pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and acne.
Q. What's the one thing you want NOi to be known for?
NOi will be known as the first company to successfully develop and bring to market safe and effective nitric oxide-based therapies that addresses the root cause of many poorly managed diseases. We are also the first to develop a solid-dose form of a bioactive gas.
Q. Is there anything else you want us to highlight that we might have missed?
Our drug discovery program stands out from the rest of the world. Most drugs are synthetic compounds that inhibit certain biochemical reactions. This is called pharmacology. A good example are the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors called statins that inhibit the rate-limiting step in cholesterol production. When you inhibit a biochemical reaction, there are always side effects and unintended consequences. What we do is applied physiology. Our drug discovery and development is designed around the replacement and replenishment of insufficient nitric oxide that is found in every chronic disease. Our strategy is to give back to the body what it is missing at the right dose and at the right time. Since we are simply restoring the production of a natural molecule, our drugs do not have side effects or unintended consequences since this is how the body is designed to work. Our nitric oxide drugs will be how we treat patients for the next 100 years and will change the landscape of healthcare and the management of chronic disease. Dr. Bryan’s OTC nitric oxide technology can be found at www.NO2U.com and www.N1O1.com.
About | Nathan S. Bryan, Ph.D.
Dr. Bryan earned his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and his doctoral degree from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport, where he was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. He pursued his post-doctoral training as a Kirschstein Fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine in the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute. After a two-year post-doctoral fellowship, in 2006, Dr. Bryan was recruited to join the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston by Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., a 1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology. Dr. Bryan has been involved in nitric oxide research for the past 20 years and has made many seminal discoveries in the field. Dr. Bryan is a successful entrepreneur and the founder of Human to the Power of n, Inc, Pneuma Nitric Oxide, LLC, Nitric Oxide Innovations, LLC, and Bryan Nitriceuticals, LLC.