A nasal spray that claims to 'inactivate' coronavirus within a minute is to be made available in the UK.
The manufacturers of the product say it is effective against multiple strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as a broad spectrum of other viruses including influenza.
The product, Viraleze, was developed by Australian biopharmaceutical company Starpharma and is registered for sale in the UK from April 21 in pharmacies.
The firm say tests involving 1000 samples found it could "irreversibly and rapidly" inactivate 99.9% of Covid-19 within one minute.
However experts have urged caution saying a 99% (3 log reduction) is not enough to completely prevent infection saying 6 to 8 is required.
Log reduction is used by scientists to express the relative number of living microbes that are eliminated by disinfection.
Starpharma say the spray is designed to be used as a complement to face masks and vaccination, particular at times "when social distancing is not possible. The product will be sold in Lloyd pharmacies and is only suitable for children aged over 12.
Professor Jurgen Haas, Head of Infection Medicine at University of Edinburgh, said: “The main question to ask is whether this nasal spray can actually reach concentrations that would block virus infection in the nasal cavity, this is particularly important when we know that SARSCov2 can have a very high viral load in the nose.
"From what I can tell, this product has only been tested on cells in the laboratory.
"To understand the effectiveness of medical treatments they are usually tested in clinical trials in humans – the gold standard in testing the impact of a treatment.”
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