According to AD3C leader Richard Whitley, a paediatric infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, all these drug candidates function as fake genetic building blocks that gum up the ability of viruses to copy their genomes faithfully. That drug, too, was first studied 5 - pre-pandemic - by AD3C scientists, who have also identified promising leads against alphaviruses and flaviviruses. Around the same time, trials that ran during two Ebola outbreaks in Africa showed that the drug was safe in people.ДЇunders, now is the time to invest big in COVID drugs In 2017, AD3C members demonstrated the anti-coronavirus potential of remdesivir in animal models 2. Its objective is to screen existing drug libraries for inhibitors of influenza, coronaviruses, alphaviruses (such as those responsible for chikungunya), and flaviviruses (the pathogens behind dengue and Zika among others). Remdesivir came about thanks to the prudent forethought of researchers involved in the Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development Center (AD3C), an NIH-backed project launched seven years ago. But what choice does the scientific community have? вЂњWe donвЂ™t want to have another year like 2020,вЂќ Moorman says, вЂњand we donвЂ™t have to, if we do the work in advance.вЂќ Ready for duty вЂњThereвЂ™s a lot of work that needs to be done,вЂќ says Nat Moorman, a virologist at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. But with the pharmaceutical industry historically focused on just a few particular viruses - HIV and hepatitis C, mostly - finding agents to fight known and imagined threats remains a tall order. The past year has seen a bevy of SARS-CoV-2-centred drug-discovery efforts. These projects wonвЂ™t be starting from scratch. And a few groups hope to create antivirals for more distantly related pathogens that pose a pandemic risk. A new industry-backed coalition is taking aim at influenza viruses and coronaviruses. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), for one, is planning a major programme to develop therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other viruses with pandemic potential.

New initiatives to create that arsenal are on the horizon. How COVID unlocked the power of RNA vaccines вЂњWe need an arsenal,вЂќ says Kara Carter, head of discovery biology at the biotech company Dewpoint Therapeutics in Boston, Massachusetts, and president of the International Society for Antiviral Research. Researchers bemoan that there werenвЂ™t more options. вЂњWe can be better prepared.вЂќДЄside from one qualified success in remdesivir, a therapy originally developed to treat hepatitis C and Ebola, there were practically no strong antiviral drug candidates to quickly test and deploy against SARS-CoV-2. вЂњShame on us,вЂќ he says of the pharmaceutical industry. Still, the drug shelves remained largely bare - a fact that Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, regards as вЂњregrettableвЂќ. вЂњThen we would have had something in the stockpile for the emergence of COVID,вЂќ which is a caused by SARS-CoV-2, a close relative of the virus responsible for SARS.ДЄnother warning shot came in 2012, when Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) - caused by another relative of SARS-CoV-2 - started spreading through a handful of countries. вЂњThe scientific community really should have developed universal antivirals against SARS,вЂќ says Webster, now an emeritus member of St Jude ChildrenвЂ™s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. After the SARS threat subsided, interest evaporated - and the world paid the price. One of his top recommendations: develop and stockpile drugs that target a wide range of viral pathogens 1.Дrug researchers did not heed his call. But it was a close-enough call for Robert Webster, a leading authority on avian influenza, to start urging scientists and policymakers to prepare for the next outbreak. Many experts feared they were watching the start of a global pandemic.ДЇortunately, the worst-case scenario never materialized. And a new coronavirus was spreading around the world causing a mysterious illness that became known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. A pair of deadly influenza strains had leapt from birds to humans in Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

The year 2003 was an ominous one for emerging infectious diseases.

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