pensive on penzim

To recap: There is a claim that penzim, an enzyme extracted from cod intestines, has strong antiviral properties, and in particular is effective in killing the H5N1 virus in vitro

The Times has a decent article on it

So, what is the big deal?
Well, probably nothing, there are no clinical trials or safety studies yet, but since the stakes are high, it is worth contemplating. Never know, this might be the silver bullet...

Penzim is a psychrophilic protease.

That is to say, it is an enzyme that breaks up protein, which works well at cold temperatures.
A good thing for arctic cod to have in their guts, I'd say.

There are many ways to kill virus. Strong bleach, boiling sulphuric acid etc.
Penzim has been used as a non-prescription over the counter skin treatment in Iceland for a couple of decades. It is quite popular, with anecdotal reporting of very good results when used on hard to treat skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Especially in children.

Since Icelanders remain quite long lived by developed world standars, one infers that topical applications of penzim are benign. They may also be ineffective, since there are no clinical trials.
There are no clinical trials because the company, Zymetech is a tiny startup with no money. They've been extracting the enzyme from spare cod guts that a fish processing plant in a small town on the east coast had been keeping for them, rather than throwing them overboard.
Clinical trials take serious money.

The lab tests of the antiviral properties were done by Retroscreen Virology at QMW, so there is probably something to it.
That doesn't mean it is a good idea to start popping penzim pills, though if you caught bird 'flu right now, what would you have to lose? I'd certainly not try injecting it!

But, it may have topical application to slow or prevent spread of avian 'flu, especially if it switches to human-to-human transmission mode.
We don't know how influenza viruses spread between people, but it is a good bet that a fair fraction of the transmission channels involve fingers touching noses or mouths. So a safe topical cream with strong antiviral properties might be good for interrupting transmission.
I see the company also speculates on a penzim spray or aerosol for decontamination and surface cleaning. Maybe. Sounds a bit fishy to me.

Until clinical trials, human blinds, animal double blinds etc, it is impossible to know.
If something goes wobbly in the meantime, you could do dumber things than penzim handcream along with other standard anti-flu transmission measures, and in extremis, eating the stuff is unlikely to make it worse, and might make it better.

I note that the company makes very strong, "miracle cure" level, anecdotal claims about the efficacy of the stuff, modulo the absence of trials - that is not a good sign, or good science, on the other hand you're not going to spend 20 years of your life on cod gut extracts unless you really think you're onto something.

And, as all Icelanders now, cod cures all. Even poverty.