COMSTECH Webinar on “The Story of Favicovir: Domestic Drug Development for Covid-19 Treatment”
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Güzel
Director of Drug Discovery and Development Research Center, Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey
Date and Time: 18th Februray 2021; 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 02:00 pm Gulf Standard Time: 10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time
Short Abstract: As the world shaken by pandemic Covid-19, small molecule inhibitors have previously been heavily investigated in different studies as possible therapeutics in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. In Turkey we began investigating potential treatment options and decided to collaborate with a local pharma company named Atabay. Within a short period of time, we have successfully completed full lab and industrial scale of three molecules that have been vastly used for Covid-19 treatment such as Favipiravir (Fav), Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), Remdesivir (Rem). The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak all over the world has led the researchers to strive to develop drugs or vaccines to prevent or halt the progression of this culprit.
As the literature supports, Favipiravir is approved by some countries, including India, for COVID-19 treatment. Favipiravir has shown rapid viral clearance and faster clinical improvement. Various treatment recommendations include Favipiravir for COVID-19 treatment we began to investigate and immediately started synthetic strategy for these medicines. To minimize and reduce the external dependency we as a group of 12 researchers started local synthesis and isolated our lab and stayed in the hotel during the entire project term. During our study we have established cost effective route to expedite the process and filed a domestic patent and currently preparing manuscript for publication. During the seminar, the short time success story and local licensing adventure will be highlighted.
Target Audience: This webinar is open to academicians, scientists, and general public from all the member OIC states.
Profile of Speaker: Dr. Guzel graduated from Hacettepe University School of Engineering with a B. Sc degree in Chemistry in 1987 and completed his M. Sc. and Ph. D. Degrees on Organic/Medicinal Chemistry at Clemson University, Clemson, SC in 1996 and 2001 respectively. He worked as organic lab coordinator at Northeastern University and later joined to ArQule Inc.as Sr. Synthetic Organic Chemist upon his graduation. He then joined to TransTech Pharma Inc, in High Point, NC and assumed various positions in Medicinal Chemistry Department between 2001 and 2014. In 2014 he started working as an Assistant Professor at International School of Medicine in Department of Medical Pharmacology at Istanbul Medipol University. In 2017 he was promoted to Associate Professor in medical pharmacology acting as a chair. In 2019 he was appointed as the department chair of Molecular Medicine and Biotechnology. In January 2020, he then became the director of Drug Discovery and Development Research Center in newly established Health Sciences and
Technologies Research Institute, currently leading two critical drug development projects for Covid-19 with a local pharma company as well as several domestic and European granted drug discovery projects in Molecular Discovery and Development laboratories of the university.
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