Among the emerging variants of the coronavirus, the “direction of the future” will be to develop “potent antivirals” that act directly on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday. Fauci, who was attending the White House’s COVID-19 briefing, said the country would need to address therapy similar to the “highly successful drug development program for HIV and hepatitis C.”
To do this, Fauci said that work needs to be done to identify vulnerable targets within the SARS-CoV-2 replication cycle.
“This will be the direction of the future,” he said, adding later that the FDA on Monday also issued updated guidelines for medical product developers, including those who do vaccines, therapies and tests to address variant concerns.
FDA ADDRESSES CORONAVIRUS VARIABLES IN UPDATED GUIDANCE FOR MEDICAL DEVELOPERS
Fauci said that while several therapies have already been authorized for emergency use, more work needs to be done, especially to treat advanced diseases. Currently approved therapies generally rely on early intervention to see the best results.
The meeting was held before a moment of silence led by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the nearly 500,000 Americans killed by the virus. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the progress the country is seeing in reducing rates of new cases and hospitalizations has been offset by the gloomy milestone.
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“Although the pandemic is going in the right direction, we still have a lot of work to do,” she said, including returning students to face-to-face education in a safe manner.