As AI began moving from theoretical promise to tangible therapeutic development, Model Medicines joined Truist Securities’ Life Sciences AI Symposium to share how its AI-driven discovery platform was being applied to urgent infectious disease challenges. Founder and CEO Daniel Haders, Ph.D., discussed the company’s pipeline, its acceptance into the NIH’s Antiviral Program for Pandemics, and the progress of MDL-001, an orally available direct-acting antiviral candidate.

The presentation followed preclinical data showing that once-daily oral dosing of MDL-001 protected against the primary symptomatic endpoint of COVID-19 and reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the lungs in an established animal model. Together, those results positioned MDL-001 among a select group of candidates reported to demonstrate both symptom protection and viral load reduction in preclinical COVID-19 models.

The data also reflected the strength of Model Medicines’ scientific network, with a manuscript in development alongside collaborators Arnab Chatterjee, PhD, at California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), Scripps Research, as well as Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, PhD, and Kris White, PhD, at the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine.