Between A Cure And Access

As researchers scramble to come up with therapies to treat COVID-19, patents could keep the drugs out of reach for many

- Latha Jishnu

It is a feverish hunt for ways to treat one of the deadliest infections the world has known since the 1918 Spanish flu. As millions more are infected by covid-19, researchers are scrambling to come up with a range of items to cope with the pandemic—from easy-to-use diagnostic kits and medicines to the holy grail of them all: a vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) coronavirus-2, which causes the covid-19 disease.

Vaccines, however, are a long way off even though over a hundred pharma companies, research institutions, and global collaborations have been set up to find the magic bullet (see ‘Hope or hype?’ on p46) to halt the pandemic. The vaccine hunters may be attracting big money and headlines, but as much of the research attention is focussed on existing therapies to help patients—especially those who become critically ill—to fight the virus. These endeavors are as fascinating as they are varied, drawing in systems biologists, Big Pharma, universities, start-ups, and a host of others in an effort to stop sars-cov-2 from reaping a deadly harvest.

Since every virus is different, new drugs have to be developed to fight diseases. But this takes time—of several years—and requires humungous amounts of money. Covid-19 does not allow us that kind of luxury; it spreads extraordinarily fast and that is the danger that hangs over the world, although compared to other viruses such as Ebola and Zika it is not so deadly. So readily available drugs are under the scanner in laboratories across the world where researchers are narrowing their search to find medicines that work best against the virus. Repurposing is the new strategy.