Could Fish Oil Product Prevent Viral Infection?

Vala Hafstað

“The results show us that that the effectiveness is considerable, and the next step will be to test the effectiveness on people, and that is about to get started,” Katrín Pétursdóttir, managing director of Lýsi hf., tells Morgunblaðið. She is speaking of research that was done in the US on a fish oil product developed by Lýsi in the spring, believed to be able to prevent a viral infection.

The result of the research shows that fish oil to which free fatty acids have been added destroys viruses in an effective way.

“This project is being done in cooperation with Lipid Pharmaceuticals, behind which there are excellent scientists,” Katrín states. “The product was sent to the US, where it was tested on cell cultures. The result showed that our product that contained either one or two percent free fatty acids was effective against 99.99 percent of the coronavirus, SARS CoV-2.”

The next step is to test the effectiveness on people to see how effective the product would be against a virus in humans. “The good news is that approval has been given for the research process to take place here, and I expect results to be available early next year,” she states.

She emphasizes that this science is not new. “For 30 years, people have known that free fatty acids have a weakening effect on viruses and bacteria.” She stresses that this new product differs from regular cod liver oil in that free fatty acids have been produced and added to it to increase their ratio in the product.

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