Novel Halomethylketone Azadipeptides for Treating COVID-19

COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It rapidly escalated into a global pandemic, causing more than 6 million fatalities by March 2022, a little over 2 years since its emergence in December 2019. The first peptidomimetic coronavirus main protease inhibitor, nirmatrelvir, was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. FDA on Dec 22, 2021. Less than a month after its patent application, Hoffmann La-Roche scientists filed a patent application describing azadipeptide peptidomimetic inhibitors (WO 2022/043374 A1). This patent highlight reveals the structure-activity relationship of key azadipeptide inhibitors described in the patent.