Biotechnology company AIkido Pharma Inc (Nasdaq:AIKI) stated on Thursday that it has identified compounds to address the COVID-19 pandemic under a Master License Agreement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) covering the latter's antiviral compounds.

The researchers at UMB, including Matthew Frieman, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), Alexander MacKerell, PhD, professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and Stuart Weston, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at UMSOM have identified a human protein complex (SKI complex) important for replication of several viruses including Influenza, COVID-19, SARS1, MERS, SARS2, Ebola and Marburg.

Based on SilcsBio LLC's computer modeling approach SILCS, the identified chemical compounds were tested for their ability to block replication of the Influenza virus in human cells, from which several active compounds were found. These compounds were then tested against the other viruses and found to block replication of these as well. The researchers are currently identifying compounds with chemical structures similar to the active compounds and testing them to find ones that work better at blocking virus replication.