(Source: Pharma Phorum)
The AGILE programme, which is researching a second wave of COVID-19 therapies in the UK, has begun testing its first potential drug that researchers hope could alter the course of the pandemic.
AGILE is a novel clinical trial platform run by several UK academic institutions that is looking for a second generation of COVID-19 drugs and therapies in case the medicines in clinical trials don’t work out.
The trial received a £2.2 million grant last month and the first candidate is an oral antiviral drug known as EIDD-2801 developed by the US pharma Ridgeback Therapeutics. Researchers on the trial hope that EIDD-2801, which has been shown to be active against coronaviruses in animal studies, could change the direction of the pandemic.
EIDD-2801 is an investigational, orally-bioavailable form of a potent ribonucleoside analogue that inhibits the replication of multiple RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease.
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