Virtual meeting, April 06, 2022 

We are two years into a novel coronavirus pandemic that affects and transforms countless lives worldwide. While considerable progress has taken place over these last years – such as the creation of highly effective vaccines – COVID-19 can still be a moderate to severe illness, with no effective treatment once you get the disease. Therefore, creating efficient treatments of the disease is crucial but also difficult, considering the continuously evolving SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. 

To tackle this, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use at the European Medical Agency urged the EU to coordinate all EU-funded research into large-scale multi-centre, multi-arm clinical trials against COVID-19. In response to that the EU Commision fully supports the establishment of a European network for COVID-19 therapeutic trials.  

Under the Horizon Europe HERA Incubator call, the iMPact project received funding for the early clinical development of therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2. On 6th of April members of the iMPact project participated in a virtual meeting comprised of members of this newly established European Network. 

Within this meeting, Dr Wolfgang Brysch presented the scope and activities of the iMPact project surrounding the novel orally available MP1032 drug with anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. By participating in this important meeting, the stage for collaborations between projects and initiatives has been set, and the harmonisation of COVID-19 therapeutic trials in Europe is underway.