Wednesday, 26 January 2022, 7:07 amPress Release: World Nano Foundation

Suggestions that COVID-19 is on the wane have beenstrongly contradicted by the World Health Organizationssenior pandemics scientist, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.

Andher criticism of virus complacency has fuelled calls forresearch and development of anti-viral drugs to stop allcoronaviruses at source, in addition to ongoing vaccines andtesting for COVID-19 variants.

DrVan Kerkhove, a highly regarded infectious diseaseepidemiologist and World Health Organization (WHO) Head ofthe Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit, delivered herwake-up call in a BBC TV interview where she insisted thatCOVID-19 was still evolving and the world must evolve withit:

It will not end with this latest wave (Omicron)and it will not be the last variant you will hear us (WHO)speaking about unfortunately, she told BBCinterviewer Sophie Raworth.

Countries with highimmunity and vaccination levels were starting to think thepandemic is over, she added, but despite 10 billion vaccinedoses delivered globally, more than three billion peoplewere yet to receive one dose, leaving the world highlysusceptible to further COVID mutations - a global problemfor which a global solution was needed.

She alsochallenged assumptions that the COVID Omicron variant wasmild: It is still putting people in hospitaland itwill not be the last (variant). There is no guarantee thatthe next one will be less severe. We must keep the pressureup we cannot give it a free ride.

This drew aresponse from the World Nano Foundation (WNF), anot-for-profit organization that promotes many of theinnovations including nanomedicines, AI andcomputational drug development platforms, testing andvaccine development that have played vital roles infighting the COVID pandemic.

WNF Chairman PaulStannard said: We welcome Dr Van Kerkhoves timelyintervention. Too many people think we can sit back withCOVID now, forgetting lessons learned the hardway.

Such as theres always another variant justaround the corner, and testing and vaccines are not thecomplete answer.

Even if Omicron seems milder thanits predecessors though this may be due to vaccinationsand growing herd immunity who can say that a more fatalCOVID mutation will not follow, or an all-new virus iswaiting to strike.

Many other pathogens haveentered humans in last 15 years including SARs Ebola, Zikavirus and Indian Flu variants, so permanent pandemicprotection investment is vital to restoring confidence inour way of life and the global markets.

An evenolder lesson is Spanish Flu (1918-20): the death toll wasrelatively contained initially, lulling people alreadyfatigued by WW1 devastation into thinking the worst wasover.

But that virus then mutated into its mostdeadly strain, killing 50 million people when Earthspopulation numbered less than two billion. All of whichsuggests we must maintain or redouble our efforts againstCOVID-19 and other potential threats.

We havealready benefitted from greater healthcare investment andresearch due to the pandemic: experts say the first sixmonths of the emergency delivered sector progress equivalentto the previous 10 years.

This helped unusuallyrapid deployment of new and better testing and vaccines thathave driven down infection, hospitalization and deaths, butwe hope that the WHO view will now foster a new andpotentially more effective development against COVID andother threats anti-viral drugs.

Instead ofattacking the virus like a vaccine, anti-viral drugs aim tostop it functioning in the human body. Merck and Pfizer saythey have re-purposed existing drugs to do justthat.

But a better option is gathering momentumusing nanomedicine, AI and advanced computational technologyto develop all-new drugs more quickly and effectively,potentially delivering breakthroughs against many seriouskillers, including viruses, cancers and heartdisease.

WNF believes these can disrupt thetraditional pharmaceutical industry as Tesla has done in theauto industry, or SpaceX and Blue Origin have done inspace.

California-based Verseonhas developed an AI and computational drug developmentplatform and has six drug candidates, including ananti-viral drug to potentially block all coronaviruses andsome flu variants, potentially transforming pandemicprotection.

This could be on the market within 18months after securing a final $60 million investment, asmall amount compared to the $1 billion pharma industry normfor a single new drug (source: Biospace),and weighed against 5.6 million COVID deaths globally and anestimated $3 trillion in economic output (source: Statista)lost since the start of the pandemic.

Verseon Head ofDiscovery Biology Anirban Datta said: Vaccines and thecurrent anti-viral drugs are retrospective solutions thatdont treat newly emergent strains. We need a differentstrategy to avoid always being one step behind viralmutations.

So, we switched target from the virus tothe human host. If we stop SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) enteringour cells which, unlike viruses, dont mutate then we havea long-term solution.

Even better, the strategyshould work against other coronaviruses and influenzastrains that use the same mechanism as SARS-CoV-2 to infectcells a key point, since it surely wont be the lastpandemic to affecthumanity.

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Anti-viral Drugs Can Be Final Solution As WHO Warns Against Lowering Our Guard To COVID-19 - Scoop.co.nz