Pandemic-prone respiratory viruses remain a major global health threat, yet only a limited number of antiviral treatments are available, particularly affecting populations in low-resource settings. Salicylamides represent a promising but underexplored class of host-targeting antivirals with broad-spectrum activity across multiple viral families. By acting on human cellular pathways essential for viral entry and replication, they may offer increased resilience to drug induced viral resistance, which is a growing concern with current influenza therapies.
Building on earlier collaborative work, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and India’s Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) are advancing newly optimised salicylamides with markedly improved potency, bioavailability, and metabolic stability. This project will take the most promising candidate through key preclinical studies, including pharmacokinetic assessments, safety profiling, and confirmation of broad-spectrum antiviral activity. A differentiated back-up compound will also be developed to ensure programme continuity.
Beyond progressing a potential first-in-class antiviral, the partnership strengthens India–Europe collaboration and contributes to building sustainable discovery and preclinical capacity for pandemic preparedness. The project is led by PI Dr Peter Sjö (DNDi) and co-PIs Dr Sweety Samal and Dr Dinesh Mahajan (THSTI) and will run from March 2026 to February 2028.