Project by Fiocruz Pernambuco on antivirals against Covid-19 is selected in public call

A project of Fiocruz Pernambuco was selected in a public call released by the Federal Government in a partnership with other countries that are part of BRICS - formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The public notice’s resources had R$6.2 million provided by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and R$1 million provided byt the Ministry of Health to fund researches directed to facing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the 85 proposals received, 12 were selected, of which three are coordinated by researchers of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. One of them is from Pernambuco, Lindomar Pena, and the two others are from Rio de Janeiro, Daniel Vilela and Thiago Moreno Lopes.

The projects will have up to two years of duration in lines of research focussing in new diagnostic technologies; vaccines and medicines; viral genome sequencing; Articial Inteligence applied to medicines, vaccines and treatment; and studies to evaluate the sobreposition of Sars-CoV-2 and other morbidities, like tuberculosis.

Fiocruz Pernambuco Study

Named Drugs repositioning and validation of the lead compounds against the main protease and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of Sars-CoV-2, the study will be carried in a partnership of institutions from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. The goal is to identify and develop new medicines that can block the Sars-CoV-2. “We believe that the results of this proposal will help doctors and researchers to develop a therapeutic approach to Covid-19”, explains the coordinator, Lindomar Pena, who’s part of the team of the Virology and Experimental Therapy Department of Fiocruz Pernambuco.

Fiocruz’s partners in this project are: Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE); Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, (India); University of Delhi (India); South Ural State University (Russia) and University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).