Teen Wins $100k for Inventing Cheaper Technique to Make Antiviral Medicine

When Adam Kovalčík flew to Ohio for an worldwide science competitors, he didn’t anticipate to return dwelling with $100,000.

The 19-year-old from Dulovce, Slovakia gained that sum on Friday, although, as a result of he developed a quicker and cheaper technique to make an experimental antiviral drug known as galidesivir, which targets RNA viruses like COVID-19, Ebola, and Zika virus.

“This might be an enormous step to assist stop a few of these RNA viruses,” Chris RoDee, a chemist and retired patent examiner, informed Enterprise Insider.

Early research have proven galidesivir can assault RNA viruses, however it has not undergone full medical trials. Kovalčík thinks he can encourage additional analysis by slashing the price of producing the drug — from $75 per gram to about $12.50 per gram.

That is as a result of he used corn waste to synthesize twice as a lot of the drug in simply 10 steps, slightly than the 15 steps at present required for manufacturing.

Kovalčík even went one step additional: He used his technique to make a brand new drug that would additionally battle RNA viruses.

Kovalčík offered his findings on the Regeneron Worldwide Science and Engineering Truthful (ISEF) in Columbus, Ohio, this week. The judging committee, which RoDee chaired, selected Kovalčík for the competitors’s prime prize: the $100,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award.

“I can not describe this sense,” Kovalčík informed BI after receiving the award in a energetic ceremony on Friday. “I didn’t anticipate such an enormous worldwide competitors to be gained by somebody from a small village in a small European nation, so it was simply pure shock.”

Pupil analysis at ISEF doesn’t undergo the rigorous peer-review course of that research go earlier than they’re revealed in scientific journals.

Nonetheless, RoDee mentioned that Kovalčík’s chemistry was “actually elegant” and his presentation to the judges was “bulletproof.”

From corn husks to antiviral medication

Kovalčík’s large cost-saving innovation began with corn husks.

Effectively, it began with furfuryl alcohol, which comes from corn husks and is comparatively low cost in comparison with different beginning factors for making medication.

One after the other, Kovalčík added chemical substances to a flask of furfuryl alcohol within the lab, like constructing blocks including to the molecule, till he acquired an important sugar known as aza-saccharide. It solely took seven steps to get there.

From there, it was solely three extra steps to get galidesivir.

“He was in a position to shortcut this whole course of,” RoDee mentioned. “He principally halved the variety of steps as a result of he simply went in by means of a unique door.”

Kovalčík’s course of takes 5 days. The traditional manufacturing technique, he mentioned, takes 9 days.

Ultimately, he produced one other drug, too. Primarily based on early laptop calculations, Kovalčík thinks his new molecule might be 5 occasions as efficient as galidesivir in opposition to COVID-19 — binding extra strongly to enzymes to kill the virus.

Massive plans for medication and fragrance

Kovalčík mentioned he is filed a preliminary patent on his drug-synthesis course of.

He additionally plans to work extra with a analysis group on the Slovak College of Expertise in Bratislava, which has supported his mission up to now.

For use commercially, Kovalčík’s drug-manufacturing course of must scale up. In the meanwhile, he mentioned, he is struggling to discover a technique to make greater than 200 liters of galidesivir.

He additionally plans to work with the college researchers on bettering different drug-synthesis processes.

“They really have rather more designs and rather more new medication to arrange and check,” he mentioned.

Kovalčík’s ambitions do not finish with advancing drug manufacturing, although. He mentioned he additionally desires to make use of his chemistry abilities and prize cash to begin an organization that manufactures eco-friendly perfumes from corn.

“From the primary time I stepped foot right into a lab, I knew that I needed to do one thing associated to chemistry,” Kovalčík mentioned.

Now that he is gained recognition for it, he added, “I really feel unimaginable.”