The Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative — READDI — is a nonprofit biotechnology company dedicated to preventing global catastrophes caused by viruses. It plays a clear, specific — and central — role in the widely accepted three-pronged pandemic preparedness approach involving diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. READDI develops therapeutics.
Specifically, READDI’s mission is to ensure that broad-spectrum small molecule antiviral drugs are ready for immediate use at the first signs of future pandemics.
READDI leverages the skills, resources and operational expertise of academia and industry to efficiently discover and develop medicines before devastating new viruses emerge.
Effective antiviral medicines for everyone, everywhere
READDI is collaborating with a global network of action-oriented professionals from academia, industry, government and philanthropy to accelerate the drug discovery and development process for medicines that work against the most dangerous families of viruses. Broad spectrum drugs are designed to work against entire families of viruses, which makes it possible to create pills that can defend against never-before-seen viruses as soon as they emerge. READDI’s mission is to provide effective antivirals to everyone who needs them, when they need them, where they need them.
READDI was inspired by a prominent team of the world’s brightest research minds and began with a groundbreaking collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Eshelman Institute for Innovation at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Structural Genomics Consortium.
READDI’s Antiviral Innovation Engine
Founding partners
UNC-Chapel Hill ranks eighth among more than 25,000 institutions worldwide in coronavirus research and fifth in the nation in federal research funding. The UNC School of Medicine brings more than two decades of virology expertise to the initiative. According to U.S. News and World Report, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, home to the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, ranks first in the nation. The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health ranks second.
Eshelman Innovation, housed within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, moves groundbreaking healthcare therapeutics and digital health ideas to reality. Combining the inspiration of academia with the spirit of entrepreneurship, Eshelman Innovation identifies the world’s biggest needs for innovation and charges toward them.
The Structural Genomics Consortium is driving a new scientific and drug discovery ecosystem by focusing on less well-studied areas of the human genome. A pioneer of open science, the consortium — a network of academic and industry scientists — catalyzes research in new areas of human biology and drug discovery by focusing on genetics. And the SGC shares all research with the scientific community — no strings attached. The SGC has partnerships with nine global pharmaceutical companies and collaborations with scientists at hundreds of universities around the world.