Until a vaccine is available, there is an immediate need for medicines that can prevent life-threatening complications of COVID-19.
Our platform surfaced potential drugs and through a triage process using our models, we identified Baricitinib, an approved rheumatoid arthritis drug, as a potential treatment to inhibit viral infection.
Our research was published in The Lancet and we signed the Wellcome Trust pledge to share our research in response to the emerging global health crisis.
We published a second paper examining the affinity and selectivity of all the approved drugs. This further research indicated that Baricitinib reduces endocytosis and the body’s hyperinflammatory response to the virus, thus potentially reducing patient mortality rates.
Eli Lilly, who owns Baricitinib, announced an agreement with the US National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to enter Baricitinib into clinical trials in the US, with planned expansion to additional sites in Europe and Asia. Results are expected within the next few months.
