Academia Partners with Pharma to Discover New SARS-CoV-2 Drug Treatments

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)’s Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern program has granted the Metropolitan Antiviral Drug Accelerator (MAVDA) $65,141,731 over the course of three years to develop novel antiviral treatments for combating SARS-CoV-2, its variants, and other future threatening viruses.

MAVDA is a unique collaborative enterprise comprising world-class virologists and academic drug researchers from Rockefeller University, Columbia University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York City; the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) and Rutgers University in New Jersey; and established antiviral drug developers Merck, the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute (Tri-I TDI), and Aligos Therapeutics.

The mission of MAVDA is to discover, optimize, and test innovative small-molecule antiviral drugs that target coronaviruses (CoVs) and RNA viruses that have pandemic potential. Ultimately, MAVDA’s goal is to quickly develop oral drugs that can be given in outpatient settings.

The MAVDA program will be co-led by drug discovery expert David Perlin, PhD, Hackensack Meridian CDI, and Nobel laureate and virologist, Charles Rice, PhD, Rockefeller University. The rest of the team consists of other world-class virologists, David Ho, PhD (Columbia), Stephen Goff, PhD (Columbia); drug discovery experts, Jingyue Ju, PhD (Columbia), Tom Tuschl (Rockefeller); structural biologists, Lawrence Shapiro, PhD, Dinshaw Patel, PhD (MSK); medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and drug screening experts, James Balkovec, PhD (CDI), Joel Freundlich, PhD (Rutgers), Veronique Dartois, PhD (CDI), and Fraser Glickman, PhD (Rockefeller).

The key to the success of this initiative is the involvement of commercial partners such as Merck and Co.; the nonprofit Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute partnership with Takeda; and Aligos Therapeutics, the sole entity based in California, all of whom will support MAVDA’s drug development goals with extensive internal resources.

“This public­–private partnership is how science can prepare for the next phase of SARS-CoV-2, as well as other current and new viral threats,” explained David Perlin, chief scientific officer and senior vice president of the CDI, professor at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “Vaccines were a terrific breakthrough to help stem COVID-19 after the initial spread, but as we have learned with COVID-19 and other pandemic diseases, vaccines alone are insufficient. We need effective drugs that can be used early and distributed widely to diverse populations around the world,” said Perlin.

“We need to think differently,” said Charles M. Rice, PhD, the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology and Head of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease at Rockefeller University, the recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. “Bringing all this experience and expertise into the same program, and having everyone pull in the same direction, can produce some great results,” he elaborated.

While MAVDA is a collaborative group of scientists who work on other anti-infective projects, Perlin leads the CDI’s NIH Center of Excellence in Translation Research (CETR), including industry participation.

“Collaborations such as these are critical to develop much needed antiviral options. We are delighted to be participating in this important endeavor,” said Daria Hazuda, PhD, Vice President of Merck Research Laboratories Infectious Diseases and Vaccines.

This partnership, developed last year, leverages the success of these companies to target coronaviruses and flaviviruses successfully.

Perlin and others have mentioned that this public–private partnership will help bridge gaps that commonly stifle vital advancements. For example, in 2020, the CDI and Merck teamed up to conduct drug discovery via the NIH-funded CETR, led by Perlin.

“Having these teams, which contribute in their own ways, is going to move the work along faster and more efficiently,” said Ho. “We’re eager to do our part,” he continued.

“Tri-I TDI’s mission is to accelerate transformational drug discovery programs ­— this challenge certainly is of global importance,” explained Peter T. Meinke, PhD, Tri-I TDI.

“We are excited to join with the distinguished MAVDA consortium to advance the development of much needed oral antiviral drugs for the treatment of COVID-19,” said Julian Symons, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Aligos Therapeutics. “Our broadly acting, potent, SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitor offers the potential to effectively inhibit both current and future variants that may emerge.”

The goal is to translate what academic scientists discover using the capabilities of pharmaceutical companies.

“We are excited at the breadth of this project, and the huge difference it could make,” said Perlin. “For a global health challenge like COVID-19, we need to think bigger, and differently. We embrace the challenge.”