Dr. Michael Sofia, Arbutus Biopharma’s chief scientific officer, is leading the Warminster-based biopharmaceutical company’s COVID-19 charge, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Sofia has initiated an internal research program at Arbutus to identify new small-molecule antiviral medicines that could be used to treat COVID-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks.

Sofia is known as the inventor sofosbuvir, which is used as a part of combination therapy to cure patients with hepatitis C.

“Many of our Arbutus team members have a great deal of expertise in the discovery and development of safe and effective antiviral therapies, and we’ve been actively following the coronavirus pandemic developments from the beginning,” said Sofia.

He added that while there are already many companies that are working on addressing the global health challenge, Arbutus believes it has a potentially important role to play in the process and is making a long-term commitment to developing a therapy.

“The discovery process doesn’t happen overnight,” he said, especially since the drug needs to “work effectively against a broad patient population that rapidly reduces viral load”, as well as “has a high barrier to resistance and works ideally as a pan-coronavirus agent.”

Read more about Arbutus Biopharma at the Philadelphia Business Journal by clicking here.

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