DURHAM – EmitBio, Inc.’s patented blue light biotechnology platform successfully eliminated 99.99% of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in a laboratory setting, the company announced today.

The series of in vitro experiments targeted the Omicron variant as well as other currently known variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the company said in a statement announcing the results.

According to the company, its technology is also effective on the Delta variant.

“These findings support EmitBio’s published pre-clinical and clinical findings that visible blue light may provide the only non-systemic, at-home treatment option for COVID-19 that works on all coronavirus variants,” the statement from the company reads.

“From early in the pandemic, we recognized that effective treatments were needed. EmitBio developed the RD-X19, an easy-to-use, at-home device delivering precisely engineered blue light to treat COVID-19,” said Dave Emerson, CEO, EmitBio, in the statement.

The company believes that its technology could be effective against future potential variants, as well.

“We believe it will be effective on all future variants and aim to make this important option widely available, both during the pandemic and as we learn to live with this virus and other microbial threats for years to come,” said Emerson.

The company will continue the development of its investigational device RD-X19 in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, the statement noted.   One study readout is anticipated in the first quarter of 2022, the company said, noting that for this trial, the completed genetic sequencing of trial participants confirmed that of the more than 200 subjects participating, the incidence of Delta and Omicron cases accounts for a majority of the infections.

The company operates as a subsidiary of KNOW Bio, which was spun off from Novan in 2015.

KNOW Bio said in September 2020 that it had demonstrated the “first definitive evidence” that nitric oxide can fight the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

KNOW Bio raised $2.6 million from 49 investors in 2017 and added another $4.68 million in 2018, and landed $30 million from Reedy Creek Investments, the investment arm of SAS Institute co-founder Jim Goodnight.