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Could Local Pharma Company Ease a COVID Winter?

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There’s no shortage of companies, many of them multinational pharmaceutical enterprises and global health-care companies, racing the clock and each other to see who can gain an approval in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia
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Moderna Inc. has developed a COVID-19 vaccine. Likewise, Pfizer and BioNTech have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval of their vaccine, which was granted for emergency use in December. AstraZeneca has one in the running, and Johnson & Johnson is in the mix as well. Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline collaborated on a vaccine that is in process and Novavax is chasing one, too.

There’s no shortage of companies, many of them multinational pharmaceutical enterprises and global health-care companies, racing the clock and each other to see who can gain an approval in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia.

And then there is Parnell Pharmaceutical Inc. in San Rafael’s Canal District. Parnell has been in business since 1986, a company controlled by husband-wife team Frances and Diane Parnell. The company operates out of a 1,000-square-foot space on Kerner Boulevard and offers eight different products focused on treating or preventing dryness of the skin, mouth and other areas.

The products utilize Yerba Santa, which is not old Saint Nick’s cousin. Rather, Yerba Santa is an herb that is used to treat respiratory issues, colds, inflammation of airways in the lungs, fever and dry mouth. The herb is also known as Bear’s Weed and Mountain Balm.

Yerba Santa is a key ingredient in Pretz-MD, also called Nomovoid, a nasal spray created by Parnell that the company claims kills 99.9 percent of human coronavirus. The company says it has the data to back up its claim and has set a meeting with the FDA, asking the agency to sign off on clinical trials on large groups as well as granting the company an emergency use authorization.

On its website, Parnell makes no claims linking Nomovoid to prevention or treatment of COVID-19. But in a published interview with the Marin IJ, Frances Parnell said his company has made pilot batches and some people are using it already. The FDA would have to approve Nomovoid to treat COVID-19 before Parnell Pharmaceuticals could sell it for such a use.

But that doesn’t mean that the product is unavailable. It’s sold on Parnell Pharmaceutical’s website for $24.95 for a 50-milliliter squeeze bottle.

Welcome to the new shutdown

As I was closing out this column, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he was instituting a new stay-at-home order based on disappearing ICU capacity. The new order specifies that hair salons and barbershops, as well as bars and breweries, close down. Restaurants would go back to take-out and delivery only. Retailers could remain open, but must limit their stores to 20 percent of their capacity.

The new restrictions would remain in place for three weeks before they could be lifted and come after the state ordered a nighttime curfew in most of the state. At this writing, California reported more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and more than 19,300 deaths.

In Marin, there have been 5,631 cases and 102 deaths. While Marin has held on to its red status, one level below the most restrictive status of purple, the county is poised to join the rest of the Bay Area under a purple cloud.

Simple measures such as wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings have become politically charged thanks to the Trump administration and its followers. Now all of us are paying a heavy price.

Your Marin moment

The Marin Art and Garden Center has been around forever, and by that I mean 75 years. The nonprofit celebrated three-quarters of a century in Ross on its 11-acre campus in 2020.

The center applied to be placed on the National Historic Register, but the application is still being reviewed.

It goes without saying the center is beautiful and something of an oasis in the busy suburbia that Marin has evolved into. The Art and Garden Center has become a popular venue for weddings, with four different areas where those in love can tie the knot that only lawyers can unravel. Unfortunately, the pandemic shut down the center for weddings.

But the center’s value has perhaps never been higher as we all struggle to deal with COVID-19, isolating ourselves and having a day-to-day existence focused on avoiding human contact and too much Netflix. The center, and its Rose Garden featuring 150 varieties, as well as the Magnolia Circle and the Fountain Pond stands out as a place for locals to reconnect with a world not ruled by pandemics, politics nor a struggle to remember what day it is.

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