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A new £1.6m collaborative project has been launched to rapidly identify new treatments for COVID-19.

Assortment of medication pills

The project, led by Queen’s University Belfast and funded by the Medical Research Council, will bring together experts from Queen’s, the University of Liverpool and the University of Oxford. The team will use a data-driven approach to identify novel drug combinations that are effective in tackling SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19.

Despite the development of vaccines and drugs at an unprecedented pace to prevent and treat infection, there remains a huge gap in the development of antiviral therapies. Antiviral drugs are used specifically to treat viral infections by killing or preventing the growth of viruses.

The research project will initially screen 138 drugs with known antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 to assess and identify combinations that enhance their antiviral potential. The most effective combinations will be presented to national organisations including the UK Antiviral Task Force and UK-CTAP, evidencing the need to bring the treatments forward to clinical trials phase.

Read the full story on the University of Oxford website