The therapy is developed from NK cells, which are rapidly deployed natural immune cells that detect cancer, viruses, and bacteria. The Novo-NK therapy is derived from isolates of NK cells from a small amount of a patient's blood.

In the experiment, monkey kidney cells (Vero E6) infected with SARS-CoV-2 were treated with Novo-NK cells. The analysis showed that the therapy successfully decreased the virus's effects in various controlled time periods and effectively killed the virus within six hours. The treatment has also been shown to increase immunity by reducing the risk of reinfection from virus or cancer cell mutation.

Novocellbio is conducting further preclinical studies to understand the mechanism of Novo-NK therapy against SARS-CoV-2. The company is also preparing for a phase I clinical trial of Novo-NK for the treatment of lung cancer based on successful results in preclinical animal models.