Project CARE

Activity summary

The severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) coronavirus pandemic has become the greatest global health threat to humanity this century.
According to the World Health Organization’s situation report of 28 March 2020, 571,659 patients have been diagnosed with coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and 26,493 deaths have been reported worldwide.The wide range of clinical symptoms, the severity of the disease in high-risk individuals, the efficiency of transmission and the high mortality rate mean that there is an immediate need for vaccines or therapies.
Given that the viral variant is new to the human population and appeared less than four months ago, there is no vaccine or approved therapy.

The Corona Accelerated R&D in Europe (CARE) consortium is a coalition of 37 world-renowned academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and not-for-profit research organisations committed to tackling this emerging health threat quickly and effectively.

Its main objectives are as follows: the development of therapeutics (i) to provide an emergency response to the current COVID-19 pandemic through the repositioning of drugs and (ii) to deal with current and/or future coronavirus epidemics through the discovery of broad-spectrum small molecule drugs and/or the discovery of antibodies that neutralise the virus. To achieve this, a collection of repurposed drugs, targeted libraries and small molecule libraries will be tested against SARS-CoV-2, other emerging SARS-CoV-2 clades and related coronavirus genera in phenotypic or target-based assays.

A targeted medicinal chemistry campaign will identify successful small molecules, and the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME), pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD), potency and safety of these therapeutic candidates will be assessed in vitro and in animal models. Monoclonal antibodies neutralising the virus will be generated and characterised further.
Immune markers contributing to the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infections will be identified and their correlation with clinical and virological outcomes will be determined. Finally, the lead candidates will undergo phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials in humans. With this reactive response, the CARE consortium is determined to win the fight against coronaviruses.