SAS, UNC-Chapel Hill to Transform Antiviral Drug Development

SAS and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) recently partnered to transform the antiviral drug development process and prevent infectious disease threats from turning into a pandemic. 

SAS is a leader in analytics and software services. The company’s research and development teams apply advanced machine learning techniques to integrate biological data sets from the deep lung environment of severely ill coronavirus patients.

The partnership will focus on the work of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI), founded by the School of Pharmacy at UNC School of Medicine and Gillings School of Global Public Health.

READDI curates and manages projects led by interdisciplinary teams of virologists, medicinal chemists, and drug development experts to develop broad-spectrum antiviral drugs to prevent future pandemics, such as COVID-19. 

The teams work together to advance clinical trials for determining the safety, dosing, and efficacy of potential drug candidates.

Typically, drug discovery approaches have notable shortcomings for future viruses. But READDI develops antiviral drugs targeting cellular proteins pandemic viruses need to replicate and cause disease. 

To advance this initiative, READDI and SAS will work together to accelerate drug discovery for other antiviral drugs. Initially, the team will address new treatments for COVID-19. 

“SAS strives to create a healthier world through analytics,” Jim Goodnight, chief executive officer at SAS, said in the announcement. “We look forward to working with READDI to deploy our most advanced technologies to accelerate drug discovery and support global health efforts to get ahead of the next pandemic.”

In February, scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health tested how experimental drug, EIDD-2801, halts SARS-CoV-2 replication and prevents infection of human cells in an in vivo model containing human lung tissue. 

Researchers found that EIDD-2801 was “extremely effective” at preventing and treating the infection. But Phase 2 and 3 trials are ongoing to evaluate the drug’s effect on viral shedding in coronavirus patients. 

John Bamforth, director of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at UNC-Chapel Hill, added that COVID-19 taught everyone the importance of being ready, not reactive. 

SAS and UNC-Chapel Hill want to prepare for the next potential pandemic with approved drugs and therapeutics that allow the public health system to respond effectively.