Funding for local COVID-19 antiviral therapy
L-R: Associate Professor Peter Czabotar (WEHI), Professor Guillaume Lessene (WEHI), Professor David Komander (WEHI), Professor Susan Charman (MIPS), Dr Brad Sleebs (WEHI), Associate Professor Melissa Call (WEHI). Credit: WEHI
The federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) invested almost $1 million in 2022 into progressing Australian research on a combination antiviral therapy to treat COVID-19.
The funding will support a multi-disciplinary drug discovery program led by WEHI in collaboration with MIPS to target two key proteins in a combination treatment.
The dual approach has been designed to stop the virus from replicating while fighting the emergence of antiviral resistance. This is a key threat with existing COVID-19 treatments that target a single protein. As one of the targeted proteins is linked to the body’s immune response, it also offers hope of potential benefits for treating long COVID.
Professor Susan Charman, a project Chief Investigator and Director of Monash’s Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation, will lead a MIPS research team. The team will conduct in vitro and in vivo profiling of new candidate compounds to define their physicochemical, metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties.
Professor Charman said that effective antiviral treatments would continue to play a critical role in controlling the severity of the virus, particularly amongst high-risk groups.
“Antiviral treatments are central to the ongoing management of COVID-19, and although we’ve seen extraordinary achievements with vaccines and drugs to fight the virus, the urgent need for a combination therapy remains,” she said.
