The world may be over Covid-19 but it’s clear the virus isn’t finished with us. And scientists say the reality is it is only a matter of time until the next pandemic hits.
Which is why the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institute of Health, awarded the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, a $65M grant to establish an Antiviral Drug Discovery Center (AViDD).
The new center builds upon and is affiliated with UNC’s Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Institute (READDI).
The goal of the center is to use cutting-edge technologies to develop oral antivirals that target viral families with a high potential to cause a future pandemic.
The North Carolina General Assembly contributed $18M for the initiative as well.
Ralph Baric, PhD, Program Director and a Distinguished Professor in Epidemiology, Microbiology and Immunology said the plan is to target high priority viruses.
“To achieve these goals, the READDI-AViDD Center is an international consortium that includes academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and affiliated entities across five nations who work together to prevent life-threatening infections from coronaviruses,” said Baric.
Those viral families and the infections they cause include:
“Investment in antiviral drug discovery through open science is the best way to ensure that the world is prepared for the next pandemic,” said Tim Wilson, PhD, co-director of the center and Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. “The center will leverage open science to support the development of antiviral drugs that are affordable and available to all.”
The center at UNC is one of nine centers the NIH is establishing for public-private partnerships.
The AViDD centers will conduct research on the early-stage identification and validation of novel viral targets, with an eye to identify small molecules and biotherapeutics that directly block viral targets.
As drug candidates are identified and evaluated for their potency and breadth, the most promising will enter late-stage preclinical development.
That’s where the partnerships are most important. The centers can draw on the resources of their industry partners to accelerate research, making use of the companies’ chemical libraries and expertise in moving candidates into the product development pipeline.
“The devastating effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic illustrates the critical need for new antiviral treatments for both existing and future viral disease threats,” said Mark Heise, PhD. Professor of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine. “The READDI-AC Program will significantly enhance our ability to treat existing threats while preparing for future viral disease outbreaks.”
Learn more about the nine AViDD centers established by the NIH.
