On Aug. 31, 2020, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had awarded BioCryst a new contract totaling $44 million, and has added approximately $3 million to its existing contract, to support the development of galidesivir.

Galidesivir is an investigational broad-spectrum antiviral drug that was safe and well tolerated in previous phase 1 trials in healthy subjects. Galidesivir has demonstrated broad-spectrum activity in vitro against more than 20 RNA viruses in nine different families, including the coronaviruses that cause MERS and SARS.