Holista receives Australian and Asian orders for NatShield sanitiser to combat coronavirus
Holista will ship a further 90,000 NatShield sanitisers to the Australasian region after the first 60,000 units were sold out amidst rising concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
Perth-based biotech company Holista CollTech (ASX: HCT) has received orders for an additional 90,000 NatShield sanitisers to parts of Australia and Asia, just days after the first delivery was sold out amid rising concerns of the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
The company confirmed it had received an order last week for 60,000 units (30,000 bottles) from pharmacies in Sydney and Melbourne and a separate order for 30,000 units from a South East Asian distributor.
The pharmacies will stock NatShield for retail customers in Australia and New Zealand.
Exclusive distributor
Holista is the exclusive Asia Pacific distributor for NatShield’s active plant-based ingredient Path-Away.
Until recently, the company had been exporting drums of Path-Away to Malaysia where it was combined with purified water under strict supervision and bottled for sale.
Due to a current bottle shortage in Malaysia, Holista director Daniel O’Connor said negotiations had commenced with bottling providers in Australia.
“We will announce [any new] bottling arrangements and local production in Australia when the details are finalised,” he said.
“The arrangements will allow us to supply NatShield from Australia into local markets as well as for export to New Zealand and Asia.”
Mr O’Connor said the company is also developing an all-natural nasal balm version of NatShield to reduce the risk of viral infection via the nose, either through inhaled or via touch (hand to nose).
It intends to file a global patent for the nasal balm by March, and make the product available to market by July.
Active ingredient
Each 20 milligram bottle of NatShield contains 3% of active ingredient Path-Away which attacks the cell walls of microbes, inhibiting their uptake of amino acids – the basic building block of cells – needed for reproduction.
The microbes then clump together and kill themselves in the process.
Free of alcohol and other potentially-toxic chemicals, NatShield is not harmful to humans and pets even if accidentally swallowed.
Path-Away has been proven to kill over 170 pathogens and previously known corona-type viruses.
It was developed by US-based Global Infections Control Consultants LLC and previously approved for use by Malaysia’s Ministry of Health with reference to the H1N1 swine flu virus.
Path-Away has been approved by New Zealand’s Food and Safety Authority and Environmental Protection Authority.
It has also been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and successfully tested in laboratories approved by the World Health Organisation.
The ingredients used to produce Path-Away are certified as Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) and exempted by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Path-Away is listed in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) compendium of drug information and has undergone successful USP-51 testing as a disinfectant.