BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Novartis R&D heads Bradner and Tsai see hard lessons and hope in coronavirus research

Close similarity of 2003 SARS and new coronavirus underscore urgency for cross-industry collaboration

May 15, 2020 10:11 PM UTC
Updated on May 16, 2020 at 2:04 AM UTC

If industry had responded to the first SARS outbreak the way it is now, we would probably have drugs on hand to treat COVID-19. That sobering conclusion was evident, said NIBR’s Jay Bradner, when the high-resolution crystal structure was published of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease.

Bradner and John Tsai, CMO and global head of drug development at Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), believe collaborating with industry peers across the drug development continuum is the best chance now to defeat the pandemic. ...