North Jersey to become hub of COVID drug development with $108M grant – NorthJersey.com

NJ research lab tests for COVID variants

Dr. Barry Kreiswirth, research scientist for Hackensack Meridian Health system, explains on May 10, 2021 about lab work on COVID-19 variants in Nutley.

Danielle Parhizkaran, NorthJersey.com

Major researchinstitutions led by scientists at Hackensack Meridian Health's laboratory in Nutley are teaming up to develop new COVID-19treatments with federal grants up to $108 million as the virus continues to mutate into new forms, executives announced Tuesday.

The partnership among virologists and drugmakers aims to rapidly develop drugs that can be taken by mouth without a patient having to beadmitted to a hospital. Their goal is to be nimble enough to produce treatments that can respond to a rapidly changing virus, which can mutate into new variants that take only weeks to spread across the globe.

"The goal is to develop and bring to the market in real time the next generation of anti-viral agents that can control the current virus, future variants, future coronaviruses and future viruses of pandemic concern," saidDr. David Perlin, director of Hackensack Meridian'sCenter for Discovery and Innovation laboratories.

Dubbed the"Metropolitan AntiViral Drug Accelerator," the program is being launched at a time whenCOVID is still spreading rapidly in the U.S. and New Jersey, but physicians are seeing less severe illness, especially among the vaccinated.

Subscribers: What will COVID look like this summer in NJ? Here's what the latest models show

The initial grants from the National Institutes of Healthand the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease total a combined $65 million over three years, which could increase to $108 million if the program is re-upped for two additional years.

The teams, which include scientists from Rutgers, Columbia, Rockefeller University in New York, and pharmaceutical maker Merck & Co., will create and test "small-molecule antiviral drugs" to target all kinds ofcoronaviruses but emphasizing COVID-19. The research produced here could also help with future viral threats, scientists said Tuesday.

Current monoclonal antibody treatments have shown to be effective in keeping severe outcomes at bay. Physicians at Hackensack Meridian and Bergen New Bridge hospitals saythey have rarely had to admit COVID patients in recent months and simply send them home with the drugs.

The spring surge is being propelled by subvariants of omicron that have shown to be highly transmissible but less virulent so far.

Most New Jersey hospitals are reporting few serious cases of illness, with fewer than 50 patients on ventilators statewide over the Memorial Day weekend. The daily COVID death toll in New Jersey has been in the single digits for almost three months, after the initial omicron wave in December and January, whichsaw upwards of 80 to 100 deaths each day.

TheMetropolitan AntiViral Drug Acceleratorscientists will focus on a set of eight molecular features in the virus that play critical roles in replication, maturationand immune-system evasion.

The teams have already begun working onfive projects focusing on the viral targets andmatching drugs that would be effectiveagainst them.

The partnerships allow experts in different arenas to knock down roadblocks that ordinarily hamper drug development, said Dr. Charles Riceof Rockefeller University, who will co-lead the project.

Other institutions that will be working on the project includeMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,the nonprofit Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Instituteand Aligos Therapeutics, a California company.

Much of the work will be done at Hackensack Meridian'sCenter for Discovery and Innovation, which houses 21 laboratories and more than 150 researchers at itsNutley campus.

This story will be updated.

Scott Fallon has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since its onset in March 2020. To get unlimited access to the latest news about the pandemic's impact on New Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:fallon@northjersey.com

Twitter:@newsfallon

See the original post:

North Jersey to become hub of COVID drug development with $108M grant - NorthJersey.com