Novel drugs to treat and prevent Covid-19

The PanCoroNed consortium is a public-private partnership (Radboud University, Leiden University Medical Centre, Utrecht University, Protinhi Therapeutics and Avivia) with a track record in drug discovery with ample knowledge in medicinal chemistry and virology. Its goal is to develop small antiviral molecules for treatment of COVID-infected patients. An additional goal is that the newly developed compounds will help to contain future epidemic virus outbreaks in a broader sense, so-called pancorona antiviral drugs.

The main focus to combat the pandemic was on vaccine development, while there were no drugs available to actually treat infected patients. Given the enormous numbers of COVID-infected patients and the pressure it caused on healthcare infrastructure, direct treatment options for patients would be highly desirable.

The project was based on a state-of-the-art medicinal chemistry approach, in which large amounts of compounds were designed and synthesized. The antiviral and cytotoxic activity of these compounds was assessed in a newly developed pipeline of enzymatic and cellular assays. Furthermore, physchem properties, metabolic stability and in vivo pharmacokinetic behaviour were assessed. The most promising compounds were then evaluated in a mice model.

Thus, this project has resulted in a set of compounds that are at the level to be further developed into clinical candidates for active treatment of COVID and potentially other coronaviruses. Assays have been developed that will also be exploited to assess potential antivirals for the treatment of COVID in future projects, thereby contributing to pandemic preparedness. Furthermore, the in vivo results led to securing follow-up funding to further develop the newly developed compounds towards clinical trials in humans.