The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded approximately $577 million to establish nine Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern.
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The NIH has established nine Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern. It's not specifically for COVID-19 and there is no vaccine research, just therapeutics. The antivirals will target specific viral families with high potential to cause a pandemic in the future. These include paramyxoviruses, bunyaviruses, togaviruses, filoviruses (including Ebola viruses and Marburg virus), picornaviruses (including enteroviruses and other cold-causing viruses), and flaviviruses (including the viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue and Zika).
The objective is to find new classes of antiviral drugs with the potential to curb future epidemics before they can become widespread. So... there is a local outbreak. You send the drug there and stop it in its tracks and nobody in the general public even realizes the bullet that was dodged.
One special emphasis is to target entirely new mechanisms for intervention, some that might be broad-spectrum antivirals. For instance, targeting the viral-specific enzymes that unwind DNA or RNA hairpins to make replication possible. Each of the 9 centers is actually a consortium of dozens of professors, typically doing research in multiple large universities, research institutes, medical schools, and research hospitals. All centers have already established ties to pharmaceutical companies that will advise and progress compounds to trials.
This has, in my opinion, been the most forward-thinking expenditure that has yet emerged as a consequence of the pandemic.
The continuation of funding will be merit-based and milestone driven. Any centers not performing will be canned. Top performers will be funded beyond the initial 3 years.