Novo Nordisk Foundation and partners launch global antiviral drug research and development program

The goal of PAD is to help researchers around the world identify and develop antiviral drug candidates that are ready for Phase 2 studies against viruses that may cause a global pandemic, including coronaviruses, paramyxoviruses, and orthomyxoviruses

Small-molecule drugs can be administered orally, with higher patient accessibility and lower cost than biologics, so PAD will focus on the development of small-molecule drugs in an effort to ensure that countries around the world will be able to do so should the threat of a global pandemic re-emerge.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that the world needs to work together to invest in the development of next-generation tools to deal with a variety of new threats

Using the resources, knowledge and expertise of the foundations, PAD will initially focus on a number of support projects aimed at:

• Develop research and technologies to improve awareness of priority viruses to identify and validate targets of interest within the above 3 virus families
• Discover new chemicals by including compound database screening, structure-directed drug design, and medicinal chemistry and focused biology research to optimize antiviral lead compounds
• Advancing promising antiviral drug candidates through Phase 1 human safety and pharmacokinetic studies
• Inspiring cutting-edge, high-risk technologies that have the potential to translate and accelerate future antiviral drug discovery

"We see this initiative as a major opportunity to address the enormous risks to the health of people around the world,

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that global health security cannot be achieved in individual units and will require contributions from both the public and private sectors in the future

“The COVID-19 pandemic will eventually end, but the urgency to invest in the tools necessary to prevent and stop a global pandemic will continue to grow

PAD partners will adopt a range of modalities such as direct grants and applications for research proposals (RFPs) within established research topics