Approximately 80 approved antiviral drugs only target 10 of the 220 known viruses that are responsible for causing multiple life-threatening infectious diseases in humans. That gap–combined with an increasing awareness of a need to fill it, triggered by COVID-19–is fueling more collaborative research, according to a report by Research & Markets.
The antiviral therapeutic development is fraught with several challenges, including emergence of drug resistance in viruses (as viruses can frequently mutate their genome) and concerns related to drug safety and efficacy. In order to address the aforementioned concerns, several industry stakeholders have been actively leading the R&D efforts for the development of effective antiviral therapeutics against the known viral targets.
The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed the lack of effective antiviral therapeutics that can be used for the treatment of re-emerging or emerging viral diseases; this has created opportunities for the development of novel antiviral drugs that can be effective against multiple viruses. Presently, more than 375 companies are engaged in the development of over 420 early and late-stage antiviral drugs, worldwide.
These stakeholders have established multiple partnerships and collaborations in order to advance the development of various pipeline candidates. Moreover, in order to fund product development initiatives in this domain, various private and public sector investors have invested around USD 5.5 billion across multiple instances. Driven by the increasing demand for safe and effective antivirals, ongoing pace of innovation in this field, recent partnership activity and sufficient financial support from investors, the antiviral drugs market is anticipated to witness substantial growth in the mid to long-term.