OREANDA-NEWS. A team of researchers from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) have discovered a drug that blocks the reproduction of a new coronavirus. The results of the study are published on the website of Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The medicine remdesivir (RDV) was developed for the treatment of Ebola virus disease. According to scientists, this drug was tested against Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-COV), similar in structure of RNA with a new virus. “We obtained almost identical results with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2,” the study says.

Virologists concluded that remdesivir can be regarded as a direct-acting antiviral agent against the action of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease. Scientists stated the need for clinical trials of the drug.