Medivir and SciLifeLab enter collaboration on potential SARS CoV-2 inhibitors
Medivir AB announced that it has entered a research collaboration with the Drug Discovery and Development Platform (DDD) at SciLifeLab on potential inhibitors of SARS CoV-2. Through the collaboration, DDD will get access to Medivir’s unique proprietary protease-targeted compound library.
The aim of the collaboration is to find potential inhibitors of the main protease of SARS CoV-2, an essential non-structural protein, Mpro, required for virus replication. DDD will mine the Medivir-developed unique protease-targeted compound library to identify putative inhibitors and evaluate active compounds as potential drug development candidates. Data for up to 100 top-inhibitors will be released on-line and will be freely available for drug development to combat Covid-19.
The project is led by Kristian Sandberg, Associate Professor at Uppsala University, Co-Director of SciLifeLab’s DDD Platform, and principal investigator of the project Nevermore COVID. The project is part of the national COVID-19 research program at SciLifeLab, which is funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation with a total of 50 MSEK. The project aims at establishing a pre-competitive, open science collaboration at SciLifeLab, engaging both industry and academic research groups in Sweden and abroad, for the discovery of antivirals for SARS CoV-2.
– SciLifeLab has established a national Covid-19 research program together with universities across the country (https://www.scilifelab.se/covid-19/). One part of this program involves the finding of novel inhibitors and drug-leads to block the virus and its effects in human cells. This new collaboration between Medivir and SciLifeLab DDD platform is an excellent example of a public-private partnerships between industry and Swedish universities that could enrich and enhance this program” said Professor Olli Kallioniemi, Director of SciLifeLab.
– We are very happy to be able to contribute some of our unique resources in the protease field to the collaborative effort addressing this important medical need together with the SciLifeLab DDD” said Professor Fredrik Öberg, Chief Scientific Officer at Medivir.