SPRIND has been pushing the boundaries for new antiviral agents with its first Challenge „Broad-Spectrum Antivirals“. Since the start of this Challenge, we have been thrilled by the excitement, creativity and drive with which the community works on new technologies for antiviral agents. To further support these initiatives and enable new means, especially for pandemic preparedness, we launch a new Challenge on „Transmission-Blocking Antivirals“. These are the key features of the Challenge:
The goal of this Challenge is to develop platform-based antiviral agents with broad-spectrum activity and transmission-blocking effect against respiratory viruses
Participants are expected to be in advanced stages of preclinical development with ability to enter phase I clinical trials about 2 years after the start of the Challenge
The Challenge can cover 2 years of preclinical development and an additional 2 years to conduct the phase I trial
First year funding can amount to up to €3M per team, second year funding is planned to amount to up to €4M per team and funding for the 2 years reserved for the clinical trial is planned to amount to up to €15M per team
Up to 4 teams can be selected for years 1 and 2, up to 2 teams can be selected for the following stage
Applicants may be located in EU member states, EFTA countries, the UK or Israel. Collaborations can involve partners outside this geography.
Deadline for applications is 31 March 2023, selection of participants will be finalized end of April 2023
Selected applicants will be invited to pitch their project on 27 April in Leipzig, Germany
All information concerning this Challenge, including the call and the participation agreement to be signed between SPRIND and participants of the Challenge, can be found at https://www.sprind.org/en/challenges/transmission-blocking-antivirals/
Application have to be submitted in English at https://www.sprind.org/en/challenges/transmissionblocking/submission/
Please note that one of the crucial elements of the Challenge is the focus on transmission-blocking. While every effective antiviral will exhibit some transmission-blocking, the Challenge asks participants to explicitly include transmission-blocking in their target product profile, incorporate the increase of the transmission-blocking effect in their development as well as test for it.
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