Human tests expected within a year; inventor says approach has potential for many viruses, including influenza, Zika, West Nile, and hepatitis B

Scientists in Israel say their new drug candidate for COVID shows “great promise,” after it reduced the virus count in hamsters by 93 percent.

The drug works by sabotaging the virus’s attempts to create a good environment for it to thrive, and draws on two decades of research at the Hebrew University.

Isaiah Arkin, a biological chemistry professor, said that the approach his team is using has potential for new and emerging coronavirus variants, and for a broad range of viruses beyond COVID-19, including influenza, Zika, West Nile, and hepatitis B.

In an interview with The Times of Israel he discussed a new experiment assessing the potential of the as-yet-unnamed drug candidate, saying: “We infected hamsters, which are very good for testing COVID-19 responses, with the virus. We gave eight of them our oral drug candidate and gave eight of them a placebo. After four days we ‘sacrificed’ the animals and measured the amount of virus in their lungs.

“We compared the virus count of those who took the drug to those who took the placebo, and found it was some 93% lower, which is a very impressive result, indicating great promise. What we’re doing now is optimizing the compound and raising funds to complete pre-clinical studies in humans,” Arkin said.

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