More proof therapeutics needed for corona virus in
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Washington understands vaccines are not protecting the public or providing herd immunity as hoped. Their political futures require action to halt the pandemic.
Washington announces a new plan to fight viral pandemics. Biden presented the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan last week..
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads...or-Web.pdf
GLTA Farrell
From the presentation. Therapeutics highlights:
2. Therapeutics
Goal: Have a range of therapeutics suitable for any virus family, available before a pandemic
or readily created during a pandemic.
(2.1) Inhibiting key viral functions. Develop inhibitors that target essential viral functions, such as cell
entry and replication, for any human viruses within a family or subfamily. (Effective inhibitors of this
type have been developed for HIV and Hepatitis C.) Viral inhibitors would be valuable for treatment and
prevention in both pandemic response and ordinary times (for example, to treat shingles or virally-
caused meningitis). Promising approaches to develop anti-viral therapeutics include: (i) broadly-acting,
small-molecule therapeutics against key viral functions, in advance of a pandemic and (ii) programmable
RNA-based therapeutics targeted against specific viruses, for use during a pandemic.
Funding
2. Therapeutics $11.8
2.1 Develop antivirals that inhibit key proteins for viral families, and evaluate in clinical
trials against relevant diseases
2.3 Develop host-specific therapeutics and immunomodulators, and evaluate in clinical
2.1) Inhibiting key viral functions. Develop inhibitors that target essential viral functions, such as cell
entry and replication, for any human viruses within a family or subfamily. (Effective inhibitors of this
type have been developed for HIV and Hepatitis C.) Viral inhibitors would be valuable for treatment and
prevention in both pandemic response and ordinary times (for example, to treat shingles or virally-
caused meningitis). Promising approaches to develop anti-viral therapeutics include:
• Develop broadly-acting small-molecule therapeutics against key viral functions, in advance of
a pandemic. Development of small-molecule therapeutics against viral proteins, such as
polymerases or proteases, is a well-established approach — involving high-throughput screening
using in vitro or cellular systems to identify molecules, chemical optimization to produce lead
molecules, preclinical testing, and clinical testing. Because the approach is too slow to enable
creation of new therapeutics in the midst of a pandemic, it is necessary to identify and test
broadly-acting therapeutics against viral families in advance of a pandemic. The goal would be to
develop therapeutics that are effective across a broad spectrum of viruses within a viral family
or across multiple viral families.
2.3) Controlling counterproductive patient responses to infection. Develop and characterize new
therapeutics that limit damage from infectious diseases caused by over-or under-active responses of the
human body to infection.
• Develop therapeutics to modulate responses by the immune, circulatory, and other organ
systems to viral infection. Modulators of the immune system—such as dexamethasone and
tocilizumab, which act through distinct mechanisms—were found to reduce mortality among
the sickest COVID-19 patients. Therapeutics targeting the respiratory system or the circulatory
system would be useful for treatment of pneumonia or blood clotting symptoms in both
ordinary times and during pandemic response.