AVITHRAPID - Antiviral Therapeutics for Rapid Response Against Pandemic Infectious Diseases
Project Abstract
The European Consortium "Antiviral Therapeutics for Rapid Response Against Pandemic Infectious Diseases" (AVITHRAPID) aims to support the search for novel broad-spectrum antiviral compounds by advancing multiple approaches. Building on a pre-existing set of bioactive small molecules, which are at least at the validated hit level, AVITHRAPID strives for the development of pre-clinical candidates targeting several viruses. This will be achieved by combining the relevant expertise for pre-clinical drug discovery, including molecular modeling, biochemical and cell-based assays, X-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, biophysical binding studies, ADMETox profiling, in vitro and in vivo PK, as well as animal disease models. In addition, the consortium aims to conduct a Phase 2a clinical trial for a small molecule developed against Zika virus. Moreover, the consortium aims to identify and validate further viral targets and thereby contribute to the search for novel antiviral targets. As a consequence of the activities in AVITHRAPID, an early-stage drug discovery pipeline will be established that can be used to rapidly identify and develop novel antiviral compounds against emerging diseases. Swiss TPH is involved in supporting the monitoring of the clinical trials aiming to test a small molecule against Zika virus.
The European consortium “Antiviral Therapeutics for Rapid Response Against Pandemic Infectious Diseases” AVITHRAPID is part of the EU Horizon research programme call “Pandemic preparedness and response: Broad spectrum anti-viral therapeutics for infectious diseases with epidemic potential”. The AVITHRAPID research consortium comprises 18 research institutions and companies from 8 countries, coordinated by the German Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. AVITHRAPID started in January 2024 with a duration of 54 months and a budget of 7.5 million EUR. The Swiss partners in the AVITHRAPID consortium are funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI.
