Dr. Nir London discusses the “COVID Moonshot” project in this videoconference. The global initiative, which currently includes nine partners, aims to develop a “cheap and safe” antiviral treatment for COVID on a much faster timeline than traditional drug discovery. The Moonshot also includes a successful crowdsourcing element, with medicinal chemistry designs being submitted from around the world.
Citing lessons learned from the SARS (another coronavirus) outbreak, where research ceased once the virus stopped spreading, Dr. London stresses that research on COVID must continue even when the pandemic fades so that we are prepared for the next outbreak. If the SARS research had continued, he says that we would have had “no problem with COVID.”
