NUTLEY, NJ — The Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation in Nutley has been awarded $619,850 to continue a key drug-discovery program in pursuit of COVID-19 treatments.
The drug-discovery program is focused on the assessment of hundreds of drug candidates in the CDI labs to find the most promising potential therapies.
“This collaboration intends to help discover new clinical pathways at an accelerated pace,” said David S. Perlin, the chief scientific officer and senior vice president of the CDI. “Many of our key investigators have outstanding infectious disease experience, and this is another way the CDI can contribute to fighting back against the pandemic.”
The funding is aimed at accelerating the partnership at the CDI’s NIH Center of Excellence in Translational Research, helmed by Perlin, for “rapid drug development targeting
SARS-CoV-2” — and also potential therapies for all coronaviruses.
The current collaboration leverages CDI’s expertise in academic drug discovery and evaluation of viral pathogens under biosafety–level-3 conditions, in collaboration with Merck, a global leader in the discovery and development of anti-infectives against the world’s most pressing diseases.
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