Medical Xpress April 2, 2025
Rutgers Health researchers have developed an oral antiviral drug candidate for COVID-19 that could overcome major limitations of Paxlovid, currently the most prescribed oral treatment.
As with its predecessor, the new drug candidate, Jun13296, targets a different viral protein than Paxlovid does and works alone rather than in combination with another drug called ritonavir. But Jun13296 beats the same lab’s first effort on several crucial metrics.
“This new compound is more potent than our first-generation candidate,” said Jun Wang, senior author of the study published in Nature Communications and professor of medicinal chemistry at Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
“In animal studies, our second-generation inhibitor still provides 90% protection at just one-third the dose of our initial compound...
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