The oral nucleoside prodrug GS-5245 is efficacious against SARS-CoV-2 and other endemic, epidemic, and enzootic coronaviruses

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adj4504?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9jWqeqg-oTmGunmuFO8zlQV50oFpZLFWElBXtZR6eAcnSUKDMkRsa9r5Wz3WQ5lD7coxa4iEInR9SyCS_g0NnOzYtv7w&_hsmi=308341219&utm_content=308341219&utm_source=hs_email Gilead's antiviral defused coronaviruses in mice, but human testing is not in the cards Covid-19 is still with us. Despite the success of Covid vaccines and because of waning interest in boosters, we still need antiviral drugs to combat infections. There are downsides to old stand-bys remdesivir (transfused), Paxlovid (rebound risk), and molnupiravir (weakness), so better solutions are needed for people who are unvaccinated, immunocompromised, or otherwise unable to build an antibody response to a vaccine. Scientists testing an experimental drug in mice report success in Science Translational Medicine against a range of coronaviruses for their small molecule obeldesivir. Developed in collaboration with Gilead, the drug was also combined at a different dosage with Paxlovid. The cocktail worked better than obeldesivir alone, but plans to test the molecule in people are on hold. “It’s really hard to test at this stage in the post-pandemic, because the virus causes so little disease,” study author David Martinez told STAT’s Annalisa Merelli. Read more. New antiviral works against coronaviruses in mice, but human testing will have to wait Annalisa Merelli By Annalisa Merelli May 22, 2024 https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/22/new-antiviral-obeldesivir-effective-coronavirus-mers-mice-experiments/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8PTc5IUBMtmhydWFCewi6RtpXIsbTpDu6SaHMgJQ--iKq2SQFaB6EH59e7wUHE35y_CVQ2fml_Udl-39npVOZZfBdECw&_hsmi=308341219&utm_content=308341219&utm_source=hs_email