Open drug discovery of anti-virals critical for Canada’s pandemic strategy

Authors

Tania M. Bubela, Simon Fraser University, CanadaFollow
E. Richard Gold, McGill University, Canada
Vivek Goel, University of Toronto, Canada
Max Morgan, M4K Pharma, Inc., Canada
Karen Mossman, McMaster University, Canada
Jason Nickerson, University of Ottawa, Canada
David Patrick, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Canada
Aled Edwards, University of Toronto, Canada

Document Type

Article

Department

Office of the Provost

Abstract

In the event of the current COVID-19 pandemic and in preparation for future pandemics, open science can support mission-oriented research and development, as well as commercialization. Open science shares skills and resources across sectors; avoids duplication and provides the basis for rapid and effective validation due to full transparency. It is a strategy that can adjust quickly to reflect changing incentives and priorities, because it does not rely on any one actor or sector. While eschewing patents, it can ensure high-quality drugs, low pricing, and access through existing regulatory mechanisms. Open science practices and partnerships decrease transaction costs, increase diversity of actors, reduce overall costs, open new, higher-risk/higher-impact approaches to research, and provide entrepreneurs freedom to operate and freedom to innovate. We argue that it is time to re-open science, not only in its now restricted arena of fundamental research, but throughout clinical translation. Our model and attendant recommendations map onto a strategy to accelerate discovery of novel broad-spectrum anti-viral drugs and clinical trials of those drugs, from first-in-human safety-focused trials to late stage trials for efficacy. The goal is to ensure low-cost and rapid access, globally, and to ensure that Canadians do not pay a premium for drugs developed from Canadian science.

Comments

This work was published before Tania joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

FACETS

DOI

10.1139/facets-2020-0079

Recommended Citation

Bubela, T. M., Gold, E. R., Goel, V., Morgan, M., Mossman, K., Nickerson, J., Patrick, D., Edwards, A. (2020). Open drug discovery of anti-virals critical for Canada’s pandemic strategy. FACETS, 5(1), 1019-1036.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/provost_office/724

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.