This Orally-Taken Coronavirus Drug Saw Success in Animal Tests

The study was carried out by a team from Emory University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One company that licensed the drug — called Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was recently given permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start 10 patient trials of the antiviral pill in the following months.

Track record of successful drugs against coronaviruses

The same collaborative project of various universities had previously found that Gilead Sciences' experimental medicine remdesivir showed success in shutting down the replication of the coronaviruses that lead to earlier SARS and MERS epidemics. Remdesivir received attention earlier this year because it began clinical trials against SARS-CoV-2 in March, with the first results due as soon as late April. Findings released yesterday suggest that EIDD-2801 is potentially even more successful in interrupting coronavirus replication than the Gilead drug.

The results of the researchers' investigation of EIDD-2801 in animal studies were posted on the preprint server bioRxiv, while still under the submission process for peer review. But in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, "it was important to share," said George Painter, professor of chemistry and executive director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, which first manufactured the drug. While it is a sign of hope, the best attitude about this is cautious optimism in the time of COVID-19.