antivirals Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

J&J’s CSO to retire by the end of 2021

Dr. Paul Stoffels, who serves as Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer, will end his tenure on December 31.

Stoffels, who is also vice-chairman of J&J’s executive committee, was responsible for reinvigorating J&J’s Janssen pharmaceutical pipeline and was instrumental in developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

The company’s CEO and executive chairman, Alex Gorsky, is also retiring from the company, effective January 3, 2022.

Dr. Paul Stoffels

Stoffels, a Belgian, intends to spend more time with his family in Europe.

Earlier in his career, Stoffels focused on tropical-disease research and antiviral drugs.

He co-founded the antiviral firm Tibotec-Virco, which Janssen acquired in 2002, paving the way to the company’s focus on HIV drugs.

Stoffels also had a passion for tackling tuberculosis and Ebola and pushed Janssen to develop treatments for them.

In 2020, St…

Antivirals could be a vital weapon in the COVID-19 pandemic endgame

Transmission electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2. Image from NIH.

Antivirals have several advantages over vaccines. They tend to be broadly effective against viral variants and offer faster-acting protection than vaccines. In addition, antivirals are usually simple to transport and don’t require ultra-cold storage. And oral antivirals would have an advantage in terms of the speed of protection they offer. For SARS-CoV-2, antivirals also could provide an alternative to vaccines in the scores of vaccine-hesitant people. Additionally, antivirals have a proven track record against other viruses like HIV and hepatitis C, where vaccines aren’t available.

“We need antivirals,” surmised Kamlendra Singh, a molecular microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri).

“It’s not that the vaccines aren’t working. They are working wonders,” Singh said. But antivirals will likely emerge as an indispensable tool as SARS-CoV-2 continue…

Antivirals could be a vital weapon in the COVID-19 pandemic endgame

Transmission electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2. Image from NIH.

Antivirals have several advantages over vaccines. They tend to be broadly effective against viral variants and offer faster-acting protection than vaccines. In addition, antivirals are usually simple to transport and don’t require ultra-cold storage. And oral antivirals would have an advantage in terms of the speed of protection they offer. For SARS-CoV-2, antivirals also could provide an alternative to vaccines in the scores of vaccine-hesitant people. Additionally, antivirals have a proven track record against other viruses like HIV and hepatitis C, where vaccines aren’t available.

“We need antivirals,” surmised Kamlendra Singh, a molecular microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri).

“It’s not that the vaccines aren’t working. They are working wonders,” Singh said. But antivirals will …

Pardes Biosciences launches first-in-human trial for SARS-CoV-2 antiviral

A handful of companies may have a lock on COVID-19 vaccines, but competition is heating up in antivirals targeting the novel coronavirus.

One of the latest entrants is Pardes Biosciences (Carlsbad, Calif.), which recently announced a Phase 1 trial for PBI-0451, an oral antiviral targeting SARS-CoV-2.

Other companies developing antivirals for COVID-19 include Pfizer as well as Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. In addition, Gilead Sciences scored the first FDA approval for COVID-19 with its broad-spectrum IV-based antiviral Remdesivir, which it first envisioned as an Ebola treatment.

PBI-0451 inhibits viral main protease (Mpro).

Researchers have validated viral proteases over the years for viruses such as hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus.

Given their mode of action, oral antivirals could also be effective against variants of concern.

Mpro is common across SARS-CoV-2 variants as well as multiple other coronavi…