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One universal antiviral to rule them all?

(www.cuimc.columbia.edu)
331 points breve | 3 comments | 26 Aug 25 14:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Geee ◴[26 Aug 25 17:24 UTC] No.45029614[source]▶
It was already invented [0], but the patents were bought by a small company in New Zealand (some kind of big pharma shell company?) who isn't seriously developing it and now appears to be defunct.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRACO

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ajmurmann ◴[26 Aug 25 17:33 UTC] No.45029716[source]▶
Doesn't sound all the bad from the linked wiki:

""" In March 2024 Kimer Med announced it has signed a contract valued at up to USD$750,000 (NZD$1.3 million) with Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the world’s largest independent, nonprofit research and development organization. The contract is focused on the discovery and development of new antiviral drug candidates for the treatment of alphaviruses. """

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forgotpwagain ◴[26 Aug 25 17:57 UTC] No.45030014[source]▶
The cynical part of me wonders: if this has been a promising approach for 10+ years, why weren't they able to secure VC funding years ago (or nonprofit biomedical research funding from places like the Gates Foundation that care a lot about infectious disease)?
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1. Alex3917 ◴[26 Aug 25 18:04 UTC] No.45030106[source]▶
This. Claims of a universal antiviral are as old as western medicine itself. Literally the only reason anyone knows what the Hippocratic oath is is because Hippocrates was already famous at the time for promoting elderberry as the universal antiviral.
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2. abeppu ◴[26 Aug 25 22:58 UTC] No.45033366[source]▶
My understanding is that the _concept_ of a virus wasn't even established until the late 19th century, because we first needed the germ theory, and then we needed to understand bacteria well enough to have a filter whose pores were known to be smaller than bacteria could pass through, but which some _other_ infection agent could still pass through.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virology#Discovery

Hippocrates could recommend elderberry for a bunch of ailments, but he didn't have the concept of a "universal antiviral".

3. 0xDEAFBEAD ◴[27 Aug 25 00:40 UTC] No.45034112[source]▶
Did Hippocrates know the difference between viral and bacterial infections?