The work on developing chemical compounds that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus methyltransferases (i.e. inhibitors of these enzymes) is carried out by scientific teams of Prof. Jacek Jemielity, Center of New Technologies of the University of Warsaw and Prof. Marcin Nowotny, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw. Their research is financed from European funds by the Foundation for Polish Science.

If an effective inhibitor is developed among the compounds that are already drugs approved for use, it will probably be possible to register it as a drug for COVID-19 within a few or several months.

The safety of such a compound in human therapy is already known, so it is enough to select the correct dose and confirm its effectiveness in combating COVID-19. It takes much longer for compounds that are not yet drugs. In order for such a compound to be approved for human use, pre-clinical studies, toxicological studies and three phases of clinical trials are required, and it can take 5-7 years – emphasizes Prof. Jacek Jemielity.