With $52 million in federal funding for the next three years, researchers at Emory University and Georgia State University will establish a new drug development center aimed at preventing the next pandemic, the Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center (AC/DC). It is one of nine Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers around the country being funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The new center at Emory and Georgia State is led and co-founded by researchers with a history of collaborating on successful antiviral drugs, including molnupiravir, which was one of the world’s first antiviral pills approved for use against SARS-CoV-2.

The AC/DC will be directed by George Painter, PhD, professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Emory University School of Medicine, CEO of the Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), and executive director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, and Richard Plemper, PhD, Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State.

The National Institutes of Health announced the funding of the AC/DC and eight other AViDD centers on May 18, noting their mission will be to build a pipeline of antiviral drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses with the potential to cause the next pandemic. The Emory/Georgia State center will receive $52 million to fund the effort over three years. Based in Atlanta, the center will also have affiliate research partners, including experts in viral pathogens and drug development, across the country and in the Baltic nation of Estonia.