New COVID-19 Hygiene Measure To Be Available This Fall
FEND cleans the air passages of the droplets of airway lining fluid we generate on natural breathing.
New Nasal Saline Mist, FEND, Shown to Reduce Airborne Particles in Exhaled Air by 99% for up to Six Hours; Designed to Clean Away the Airway Droplets that are Too Small for Conventional Face Masks to Capture
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, July 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sensory Cloud, a technology startup that designs solutions to problems of human wellbeing and healthcare through pioneering discoveries at the frontiers of olfaction and respiratory biology, announced plans for the September launch of its new hygiene product FEND, following publication on Tuesday of the scientific research demonstrating the product's safety and efficacy.
FEND is a new nasal saline, comprised of natural physiological salts present in ocean water, which healthcare workers, and anyone at risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure, can use for nasal cleansing by deep nasal inspiration of a salty mist, generated by a hand-held mister, Nimbus. FEND cleans the air passages of the droplets of airway lining fluid we generate on natural breathing. Such airway droplets can carry airborne infection. Cleaning the airways of these particles reduces the risk of infection movement into and out of the lungs, a hygiene benefit to the user and to the environment.
"Conventional masks, hand-washing and social distancing are essential hygiene practices in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, while these hygiene measures do not cleanse our respiratory system of the majority of potentially infectious particles we exhale during natural breathing," said the lead author of a scientific article published today in Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics Discovery, Dr. David Edwards of Harvard University and Founder of Sensory Cloud. "Around 80% of these particles are less than a single micron in size, and not effectively filtered by conventional face masks. Cleaning our airways of these particles is a new hygienic measure that can be of critical value to healthcare workers, all of us returning to work and school, and to the many in the world for whom social distancing is not an option."
FEND is based on the NasoCalm (PUR003 and PUR006) proprietary solutions developed by Pulmatrix, Inc., and licensed to Sensory Cloud for OTC nasal delivery and world-wide commercialization.
The product is all natural and drug free.
Administered once to three times a day, FEND has been shown to clean the airways of the airborne particles that face masks miss by up to 99% for up to 6 hours as demonstrated in the human volunteer study published on Tuesday. Critical to its hygienic efficacy is the nature of the misty cloud produced by the Sensory Cloud nasal mister, Nimbus, which produces FEND droplets approximately 10 microns in size, too small to penetrate the lungs, while permitting the physiological salts to effectively deposit in the nose, trachea and main bronchi where many exhaled airborne particles are generated.
FEND is expected to be sold online at hellofend.com. The company expects first shipments in September.
FEND Starter Kits, including a Nimbus delivery device and 2 FEND bottles (1/2 ounce each), will retail at $49, while individual FEND bottle refills will retail at $6. Each FEND bottle supplies approximately 250 nasal cleanings.
Recognizing the importance of effective hygiene to addressing the current global healthcare crisis, the Company is committing to facilitating access of the product once available to needy at-risk populations — including healthcare workers, nursing home residents, prisoners, students and teachers — around the world through partnerships and nonprofit engagements. A first of these partnerships will be in India, where the Company plans a clinical trial this summer, alongside USA human trials and pilots at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and select factory, office, and school settings. The details of the FEND charitable program will be announced later this summer by Sensory Cloud board member Dr. Dennis Ausiello, Distinguished Professor at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital.
"As our healthcare workers continue the fight against this incredibly tenacious disease, and as essential workers all over the world risk their lives, science needs to do something to help today. I have participated with David in the development of this incredibly simple, safe, yet effective hygiene innovation for the last seventeen years since the product's conception in one of David's classes at Harvard University and the first SARS epidemic. With FEND emerging now as a practical hygiene intervention, I am delighted and honored to lead the effort to get it at no cost to those who need it most and cannot afford it."
About Sensory Cloud
Sensory Cloud is a Boston-based technology startup company that designs solutions to problems of human wellbeing and healthcare through pioneering discoveries at the frontiers of olfaction and respiratory biology. Sensory Cloud is developing a proprietary line of consumer products based on its proprietary olfaction and disinfection platforms for human health and wellbeing. The Company will launch FEND in the fall 2020 for use as an essential hygienic protection against COVID-19 and other airborne infectious diseases, like influenza.
About Pulmatrix
Pulmatrix is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative inhaled therapies to address serious pulmonary and non-pulmonary disease using its patented iSPERSE™ technology. The Company's proprietary product pipeline is initially focused on advancing treatments for serious lung diseases, including Pulmazole, an inhaled anti-fungal for patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis ("ABPA"), and PUR1800, a narrow spectrum kinase inhibitor in lung cancer. Pulmatrix's product candidates are based on iSPERSE™, its proprietary engineered dry powder delivery platform, which seeks to improve therapeutic delivery to the lungs by maximizing local concentrations and reducing systemic side effects to improve patient outcomes.
