University of Oxford to evaluate repurposed antiviral drugs for Covid-19

The University of Oxford in the UK has announced the launch of a research partnership to analyse the repurposing of existing anti-viral drugs for the treatment of Covid-19. Funded by the Medical Research Council and led by Queen’s University Belfast, this $2.16m (£1.6m) project will have specialists from Queen’s, the University of Liverpool and the University of Oxford. As part of the project, the team will quickly detect the new combination of drugs that could effectively treat Covid-19 by using a data-guided approach. Antiviral therapies are specifically utilised for treating viral infections by destroying or preventing the virus growth. In the initial stage, this project will analyse 138 drugs with recognised antiviral activity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.