BRIEF—CARE consortium launches to tackle coronavirus

CARE (Corona Accelerated R&D in Europe), a new consortium supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) public-private partnership, has announced its launch to accelerate the discovery and development of urgently needed medicines to treat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

With a grant totaling 77.7 million euros (£70 million; $102 million), CARE is funded by cash contributions from the European Union (EU) and cash and in-kind contributions from 11 European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) companies and three IMI-Associated Partners.

As a member of the CARE consortium, Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim will be leading the work stream of the consortium focusing on the development of virus neutralizing antibodies. The company will also provide antiviral molecules from its legacy HIV and HCV portfolio and small molecule candidates from a complete screen of its molecule library.

Clive Wood, corporate senior vice president and global head of discovery research at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: “The CARE consortium aims to unleash the power of open science and collaboration in the service of society. We will work quickly and decisively in an unprecedented spirit of co-operation with our partners in academia and industry to defeat the unprecedented menace of COVID-19 and other serious coronavirus diseases.”