Health
NoVir

Towards a Better Protection Against Future Pandemics

Towards a Better Protection Against Future Pandemics
At a Glance

At a Glance

  • Antiviral compound activating the body’s innate immune response against multiple viruses
  • A self-administered drug with a long shelf life
  • Protection against viral threats both before and after viral exposure

Ebola, Mpox, and COVID-19: Over the past five years, global health has been repeatedly threatened by pandemics and epidemics. Prioritizing pandemic preparedness was a key lesson learned from these global health crises. Thanks to increasing societal awareness, virological research is flourishing.

One of the cutting-edge innovations in this field is ETH47, a self-administered drug with broad antiviral activity even against viruses that may not yet exist. The NoVir project accelerates the further development of ETH47 and explores its potential uses in the respiratory system and beyond. The goal is to develop an antiviral drug with a long shelf life that can be used against various viruses both before and after viral exposure.

Getting Prepared Against Future Pandemic Threats

Getting Prepared Against Future Pandemic Threats

Viral outbreaks affect societies simultaneously on medical, social, and economic levels: Fast-mutating viruses challenge the effectiveness of virus-specific therapies; frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable patient groups, such as the elderly or people with pre-existing conditions, need to be specially protected from severe viral infections; and national interests during pandemic emergencies jeopardize the functionality of global supply chains.

The NoVir project integrates these factors into the development of antiviral therapeutics. It is a cross-border European initiative, that relies on European supply chains. Furthermore, the antiviral drug developed by the project team is active against a broad spectrum of viruses, which reduces the likelihood of drug resistance. Even more importantly, it is suitable for a wide range of populations including vulnerable patient groups. By bringing together these various factors in the development of a single drug, NoVir contributes to an effective and immediate response to future pandemic outbreaks.

A Security System Against Viral Invaders

Viruses mutate rapidly. The COVID-19 pandemic painfully reminded us that virus variants can develop new and unexpected properties. This makes it even harder to create antiviral drugs that can effectively target evolved viruses. How can we be prepared for viral outbreaks without knowing what future viruses will look like? The NoVir project strives to find an answer to this difficult question: The research team further develops the antiviral drug ETH47, that enhances the body’s immune response to viral invaders.

ETH47, currently administered as nasal spray, stimulates the production of interferon lambda (IFNλ), a protein crucial for viral immunity at mucosal surfaces. The drug activates local restriction mechanisms at the viral entry portal into the host and blocks viral replication.

By shifting the paradigm from virus-targeted to immune-targeted therapies, NoVir helps reduce future viral threats.

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Your contact
Dr Silke von Sehlen
Senior Project Manager
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