On Jul. 20, 2023, seven innovative pharmaceutical companies announced they had established the INTREPID Alliance, with the goal of accelerating progress in discovery and development of new antiviral treatments for future pandemics. As a first step, INTREPID will publish an initial list of promising antiviral compounds later this year based on publicly available information and derived from a global landscape assessment and scientific evaluation.

The INTREPID Alliance members collectively bring expertise in drug discovery, antiviral R&D and medicine manufacturing. INTREPID will monitor and evaluate the wide range of innovative antiviral compounds and projects being researched around the world by academia, government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector for infections with pandemic potential, including coronaviruses, or viral families of concern such as filoviruses. The listed compounds will include those that the experts assess to be able to proceed quickly into late-stage clinical development on the onset of a new pandemic.

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of focusing on innovation across a full range of medical countermeasures, including diagnostic tests, vaccines and treatments. Building on learned from the COVID-19 response, INTREPID will contribute to delivering on the 100 Days Mission, established by the G7. The 100 Days Mission seeks to develop and deploy high-quality diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines in just 100 days following the declaration of a pandemic and to work with regulators, research centers and other stakeholders to build a pathway for their development. In COVID-19, the pipeline for oral antivirals took longer to develop than novel vaccines.

The initial list of antiviral compounds with potential utility against pandemic viruses is set to be published by INTREPID later this year, following a broad antiviral landscape assessment and scientific evaluation.

The landscape assessment is expected to identify some R&D gaps that would require new research projects and collaborations to be established and funded. INTREPID will offer advice and consultation to help accelerate the selected antiviral compounds that have the strongest potential to positively alter the course of future pandemics.