Lankan Team Of Scientists Cuts Search For Anti-coronavirus Drugs To A Set Already Approved By FDA

Research

Sri Lankan scientists led by Dr. Sameera R Samarakoon, Lecturer in Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Colombo has discovered a possible sets of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs which can be used as prophylactic treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19) by using computer based drug designing methods.

Dr Samarakoon told The Earthlanka that science was global irrespective of the country if there was a problem it should be addressed. Dr. Samarakoon, who specialises in anti-cancer developments said: “I took already established drugs …this is predication and Chinese authorities could check or work on them.” He said that his team took on total computational chemistry which was well established software approved by Compound Library.Scientists worldwide were massively struggling to find any type of solution for the disease to date, he pointed out. Dr. Samarakoon’s team comprises Dr. Kanishka Senathilake   and Prof. Kamani Tennekoon.

Plans are under to publish their findings within the next few days among the scientific community. Dr Samarakoon also said that if Chinese medical authorities were happy about the finding as their doctors can directly go for further clinical trials or applications since predicted drugs had already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, USA.

New Coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and continues to expand within the last two months. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization named the disease Coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated “COVID-19”).  Chinese health officials have reported more than 75,000s cases of COVID-19 in China, with the virus reportedly spreading from person-to-person in parts of that country.