As far as I can make out from internet browsing, the ingredient that does the work is hypromellose (short for hydroxypropyl methylcellulose). It’s a cellulose compound whose powder, in humid conditions, takes up water and turns into a gel. This gel on the inside of your nose forms a barrier against infection.
I am not a chemist, pharmacist, or doctor, but here are my best guesses for the functions of the other ingredients. Benzalkonium chloride is a surfactant, which might help the hypro form a gel layer, and also an antimicrobial agent. I do not know if it would affect viruses. Citric acid + sodium citrate might be a buffer against pH changes. Or perhaps an anti-caking agent. I would guess that the menthol is to give a pleasant sensation, and so you can “feel it working”.
Being in the UK I can order Taffix from Amazon co uk, though I’m not sure I will, as there appears to be a far cheaper product that does the same thing. That is “Nasaleze Cold & Flu Blocker”, which is also mainly hypromellose. Another hypromellose product is “Vicks First Defence Nasal Spray”. Those products make no mention of Covid, so it’s possible that the Very Serious People have not yet noticed that they should be stopping people from buying them. There is also “Nasaleze Travel – Germ and Virus Prevention”, but I can’t see how it differs from the other Nasaleze. Same price, same ingredients.
Prices: As of today, Taffix is £51.99 for 1000mg. Nasaleze Cold & Flu Blocker is £8.95 for 800mg, less than a quarter the price of Taffix. The Vicks is a liquid, not a powder, but the price is £6 for 15ml of 1% hypro = 150mg, more than three times the cost of Nasaleze. Given that these are all basically the same thing, it looks like what you’re paying extra for with Taffix is the field-testing against Covid. As for how many doses these represent, the Nasaleze says that the 800mg bottle is 30 days supply, but that would depend on how often you use it.
Obviously, these only protect against infection through the nasal tissues, and do not affect the result of breathing viruses into the lungs. I have not seen any information about which route is more important.
I have ordered the Nasaleze; it should arrive tomorrow.
It’s worth that noting that Nasaleze is around for over a decade and the website advertises “Nasaleze products are an all-natural formula that do NOT contain antihistamines, steroids or oxymetazoline and have no known side effects.”
This suggests that either Taffix or Nasaleze is a low cost way to cut down on infection risk.
Given that these are all basically the same thing, it looks like what you’re paying extra for with Taffix is the field-testing against Covid.
I’m completely fine with paying money to people who run crucial studies to fight COVID-19 to reward them for their research efforts when those result in me getting risk reduction.
It’s really frustrating that the paper has no control group and they inexplicably only had 52 people in the study. Maybe I’m crazy, but when I see an underpowered study design, it makes me assume the product doesn’t work. Companies with working products don’t need to run sketchy studies..
The people at Nasaleze used hypromellose alone as the placebo in their study for Nasaleze Travel. It might very well be that garlic + peppermint in Nasaleze works just as well as Citric Acid (6%) + Sodium Citrate (4%) + Benzalkonium Chloride (0.1%) + Menthol (<0.1%) but it’s not the same intervention.
Obviously, these only protect against infection through the nasal tissues, and do not affect the result of breathing viruses into the lungs.
The theory of action laid out in the Nasaleze paper is that if you breath through your nose, the nasal tissues do filter air before it enters the lungs.
Interestingly, Nasaleze does seem to hold a patent on administering hypromellose + other things nasally expiring in 2027. It’s for:
1. A dry powder intranasal composition comprising:
hydroxypropylmethylcellulose powder with a viscosity of approximately 10-20 Pas:
one or more therapeutic agents; and
a signaling agent, which together form a dry powder characterized in that the signaling agent allows a user to sense administration of the composition in the nasal cavity and is mint, spearmint, peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, citrus, lemon, lime or any combination thereof and wherein the dry powder composition transforms to a gel upon contact with a nasal cavity.
It looks to me like Taffix gets around the patent by not using menthol instead of any of the listed signaling agents.
Benzalkonium chloride is a surfactant, which might help the hypro form a gel layer, and also an antimicrobial agent. I do not know if it would affect viruses.
As far as I can make out from internet browsing, the ingredient that does the work is hypromellose (short for hydroxypropyl methylcellulose). It’s a cellulose compound whose powder, in humid conditions, takes up water and turns into a gel. This gel on the inside of your nose forms a barrier against infection.
I am not a chemist, pharmacist, or doctor, but here are my best guesses for the functions of the other ingredients. Benzalkonium chloride is a surfactant, which might help the hypro form a gel layer, and also an antimicrobial agent. I do not know if it would affect viruses. Citric acid + sodium citrate might be a buffer against pH changes. Or perhaps an anti-caking agent. I would guess that the menthol is to give a pleasant sensation, and so you can “feel it working”.
Being in the UK I can order Taffix from Amazon co uk, though I’m not sure I will, as there appears to be a far cheaper product that does the same thing. That is “Nasaleze Cold & Flu Blocker”, which is also mainly hypromellose. Another hypromellose product is “Vicks First Defence Nasal Spray”. Those products make no mention of Covid, so it’s possible that the Very Serious People have not yet noticed that they should be stopping people from buying them. There is also “Nasaleze Travel – Germ and Virus Prevention”, but I can’t see how it differs from the other Nasaleze. Same price, same ingredients.
Prices: As of today, Taffix is £51.99 for 1000mg. Nasaleze Cold & Flu Blocker is £8.95 for 800mg, less than a quarter the price of Taffix. The Vicks is a liquid, not a powder, but the price is £6 for 15ml of 1% hypro = 150mg, more than three times the cost of Nasaleze. Given that these are all basically the same thing, it looks like what you’re paying extra for with Taffix is the field-testing against Covid. As for how many doses these represent, the Nasaleze says that the 800mg bottle is 30 days supply, but that would depend on how often you use it.
Obviously, these only protect against infection through the nasal tissues, and do not affect the result of breathing viruses into the lungs. I have not seen any information about which route is more important.
I have ordered the Nasaleze; it should arrive tomorrow.
Preventing airborne infection with an intranasal cellulose powder formulation (Nasaleze Travel®) is an interesting paper.
It’s worth that noting that Nasaleze is around for over a decade and the website advertises “Nasaleze products are an all-natural formula that do NOT contain antihistamines, steroids or oxymetazoline and have no known side effects.”
This suggests that either Taffix or Nasaleze is a low cost way to cut down on infection risk.
I’m completely fine with paying money to people who run crucial studies to fight COVID-19 to reward them for their research efforts when those result in me getting risk reduction.
It’s really frustrating that the paper has no control group and they inexplicably only had 52 people in the study. Maybe I’m crazy, but when I see an underpowered study design, it makes me assume the product doesn’t work. Companies with working products don’t need to run sketchy studies..
The people at Nasaleze used hypromellose alone as the placebo in their study for Nasaleze Travel. It might very well be that garlic + peppermint in Nasaleze works just as well as Citric Acid (6%) + Sodium Citrate (4%) + Benzalkonium Chloride (0.1%) + Menthol (<0.1%) but it’s not the same intervention.
The theory of action laid out in the Nasaleze paper is that if you breath through your nose, the nasal tissues do filter air before it enters the lungs.
Interestingly, Nasaleze does seem to hold a patent on administering hypromellose + other things nasally expiring in 2027. It’s for:
It looks to me like Taffix gets around the patent by not using menthol instead of any of the listed signaling agents.
From previous discussion, BZK appears to effective against the coronavirus