Health
by Sue Dunlevy
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Exclusive: Australian researchers have turned a cheap 100 year blood thinning drug into a nasal spray that could block COVID-19, stop it spreading and treat the illness.
The team of Melbourne scientists, which includes Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton, is seeking funding to test the product, containing the blood thinning medication heparin, on people in hotel quarantine - to see if it works.
It comes as human trials begin to gauge whether AstraZeneca's COVID-19 injection also works as a nasal spray.
Australia's leading science research body, the CSIRO, had tested the vaccine as a nasal spray in ferrets - ahead of the human trials - and was waiting for the publication of promising results showing its impact on stopping infection spread.