COVID-19 isn’t the world’s first pandemic. Nor will it be the last.
The Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI) brings together the world’s best scientific minds and gives them the resources to stop the next virus from becoming a global catastrophe.
READDI is retooling the drug discovery and development process to rapidly develop new broad-spectrum antiviral drug solutions for the future.
These pandemics are bigger than any one university, company or government. A unique public-private partnership accelerated by a global access model, READDI has a goal of developing multiple “on the shelf” clinical assets so that we are prepared for the next global health pandemic.
This global nonprofit initiative leverages experts from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, School of Medicine and Eshelman School of Pharmacy to collaborate with leaders from industry, government, philanthropic organizations and academic research institutions. Founded by Ralph Baric, PhD (Gillings School), Nat Moorman, PhD, and Mark Heise, PhD, (School of Medicine), and led by CEO, and UNC Gillings Advisory Council member, James Rosen, MBA, MSPH, READDI was initially launched and supported through Carolina’s Creativity Hubs initiative and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation. Funding from the N.C. Collaboratory and N.C. General Assembly, along with support from several members of the N.C. Congressional delegation, has been critical in aiding the team’s work.
In May, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded the Gillings School a $65 million grant to establish an Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center to develop oral antivirals that can combat pandemic-level viruses like COVID-19. The center builds upon and is tightly affiliated with READDI.
The READDI-AViDD Center will apply cutting-edge technologies to develop oral therapies that target viral families with high potential to cause a pandemic in the future.
.jpg)
