Using artificial intelligence to discover new antivirals against COVID-19 and future pandemics

Research into drugs to treat mosquito-borne flaviviruses such as Zika and dengue as well as COVID-19will benefit from a major funding boost, says a group of international scientists using artificial intelligence to discover new oral antivirals. A research consortium led by the non-profit COVID Moonshot has been awarded more than US$68 million from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discover and develop globally accessible and affordable novel oral antivirals to combat COVID-19 and future pandemics. The development comes as monkeypox outbreaks have been declared around the world, raising concerns about the rapid spread of such viruses. Monkeypox is a viral disease that the World Health Organization says has emerged in at least 23 countries where the disease is not regularly found since 13 May. The open-science COVID Moonshot was established in 2020 with the objective of developing a safe, globally accessible and affordable antiviral pill for COVID-19.