A group of scientists from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, southern Poland, has come up with a substance that has a strong inhibiting effect on the coronavirus infection.

"Our substance is innovative on the global scale," PAP was told by Prof. Krzysztof Pyrc, a virologist at the Jagiellonian University.

The chemical compound, named HTCC, strongly inhibits an infection by SARS-CoV-2, but also by its formidable cousin, MERS-CoV.

The scientists now need a commercial or institutional partner that would carry out research implementing the new substance in clinics. HTCC is patented and has been tested on animals, but has not been approved for humans yet.

A report presenting HTCC's anti-virus properties has been published at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.29.014183v1.