The past few episodes of the NEXT NORMAL have focused on the SECOND WAVE of the COVID pandemic – likely to hit us in the next 4 of 5 months. While there’s still a lot we don’t know about this strain of the coronavirus, we have learned a lot since it was detected in December of last year. Much of that knowledge has come from an historic and piercing international scientific focus on COVID-19. There are hundreds of efforts underway to develop a vaccine and we know that some are well on their way towards human trials. But there has also been a great deal of research being done on pharmaceutical treatments that don’t immunize us but could help mitigate and minimize the symptoms and effects of COVID-19. A Halifax-based firm is doing just that. Appili Therapeutics is an infectious disease company that tests drugs currently in use to fight other diseases to see if they have any effect on COVID-19. It sounds like they’ve found one. Dr. Armand Balboni is the CEO of Appili Therapeutics. He says they are moving into phase two of trials to evaluate the drug called favipiravir as a preventative treatment against the coronavirus. And they are targeting a very specific – at risk demographic.