A Newcastle drug discovery company has made its technology available to help in the search for a vaccine against Covid-19.
E-therapeutics, which has sites at Newcastle and Oxford, uses a computer-based platform to analyse diseases and identify patterns of proteins that could be disrupted to treat them.
The company said its methods have had success in finding ways to protect people against some strains of flu.
It is now looking for other companies working in the fight against Covid-19 to partner with it so it can help them speed up the research processes.
In a statement, the company said: “We believe that the same strategies employed in our work on influenza could be used to identify combinations of compounds with useful activity against Sars-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.
“Such combinations would be an essential part of the effort to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. Importantly, these possible drug combinations would consist of currently approved and known drugs.
“This would reduce concerns around the possible risks of targeting host cell biology and causing unacceptable adverse effects.
“We have the capability to carry out such in silico screening in a matter of weeks and indeed have already begun this process.
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“However, in order to test the outputs in appropriate cellular systems as quickly as possible, we would require the help of established partners with relevant assays for Sars-CoV-2.”
The company’s statement – made to the Stock Exchange this morning – stresses that “it is not our intention to make a frivolous press release that capitalises on a global crisis to inflate our share price artificially or to create unrealistic expectations”.
It adds: “We are motivated solely by a recognition that we have a platform, validated by our influenza work, and other projects, that has the potential to have an impact and we feel ethically obligated to make this known.”
Health experts have warned that vaccines against coronavirus will not be available until next year “at the earliest”.
That delay is due to the need to clinically test vaccines before they are made widely available.