NYU Grossman School of Medicine said on Tuesday that an early study in human cells found that Pfizer Inc's antiviral drug candidate PF-00835231 may be at least as potent as the drug remdesivir in blocking the reproduction of the virus that causes COVID-19.

As part of a preliminary research conducted by NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Pfizer, PF-00835231 was shown to block the action of the viral enzyme 3CLpro (Mpro). This protease cuts up precursors into working proteins necessary for the reproduction of pandemic virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Under the first set of cell culture experiments, PF-00835231 was statistically more potent in blocking the replication of the pandemic virus (it took 3.3 times more remdesivir than PF-00835231 to fully suppress replication). In a second cell model (a 3D reconstruction of the human airway), the researchers found that both treatments were equally effective at blocking viral replication.

In conjunction, Pfizer has designed, manufactured and supplied PF-00835231. The study was funded by Pfizer, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Vilcek Foundation.