KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hope for preventing the spread of COVID-19, better known as novel coronavirus, could come from close to home.
Kansas State University announced Friday that researchers with the school have been granted money to develop antiviral drugs to treat various human coronaviruses, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the newly emerging COVID-19.
A team of virologists and a medicinal chemist have been using a National Institutes of Health grant to work on treating norovirus and recently were granted another $3.7 million to work on the coronaviruses.
A new license agreement between the university and Cocrystal Pharma Inc., could develop antiviral therapeutics to fight the viruses.
"This licensing agreement provides support to confront the emerging strain of coronavirus with urgency and caution," Bonnie Rush, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at K-State said in the release. "The work of our K-State researchers is tremendously challenging and has never been more timely."
There is currently no antivral drug to treat COVID-19.
