Even the best vaccines take 7 to 10 days to mount a preliminary adaptive immune response. And full protection often takes additional weeks and boosters to develop. In the event of an outbreak of a serious pathogen, immediate protection is paramount—even if the protection is incomplete or imperfect.
Antivirals can be effective immediately but the most effective ones are tailor designed for a specific pathogen. However, many drugs and chemical compounds can individually act as weak to moderately effective antiviral compounds against pathogens they were not designed to target—and in combination they can be even more effective. The number of possible combinations is enormous but AI is being used in other contexts to efficiently recognize the most potent repurposed drugs and combinations, and we are building on these advancements.
RaDVaC is developing an AI-based public server for the selection of rapid deployment antivirals. The predicted antivirals will consist of combinations of repurposed, regulatory approved drugs and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) compounds. We hope to have a working version in a few months for beta testing.