On July 21, 2025, two significant announcements reshaped the landscape of viral disease prevention and treatment, signaling promising advances in global health. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and PATH, a global nonprofit organization, revealed a collaborative effort to develop comprehensive playbooks aimed at mapping immune markers—known as correlates of protection (CoP)—for viruses with epidemic or pandemic potential. Meanwhile, NanoViricides, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced a breakthrough in antiviral drug development with their candidate NV-387 showing remarkable effectiveness against measles in preclinical studies.
CEPI and PATH’s initiative, backed by an $8 million investment from CEPI, is designed to accelerate vaccine research and development by consolidating existing knowledge about immune markers that reliably predict vaccine effectiveness. These playbooks will serve as crucial guides for scientists, vaccine developers, and regulators to quickly determine whether a vaccine candidate can generate protective immunity against deadly pathogens such as monkeypox, Lassa fever, Zaire and Sudan ebolaviruses, and Marburg virus.
Immune markers or CoPs act as biological indicators that help infer whether a vaccine candidate provides sufficient immunity, enabling faster progression through testing and regulatory approvals. However, despite growing research identifying potential CoPs for various epidemic diseases, the scientific community has struggled with inconsistent methods and tools to measure these markers, complicating comparisons and slowing vaccine development.
Dr. Kent Kester, Executive Director of Vaccine Research and Development at CEPI, described immune markers as “one of the holy grails in the vaccine field,” emphasizing their importance in rapidly preparing and prioritizing vaccines even before an outbreak occurs. He explained, “These playbooks could help us to more rapidly prepare and prioritise vaccines with promising immune profiles even before a virus hits, supporting CEPI’s goal to develop vaccines against outbreaks in as little as 100 days.” This goal aligns with CEPI’s ambitious five-year plan (2022-2026) known as the ‘100 Days Mission,’ which aims to compress vaccine development timelines against emerging threats.
Jessica Milman, Global Head of the Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access at PATH, highlighted the partnership’s impact on decision-making speed and vaccine development, stating, “These playbooks will provide invaluable information to help guide swift decision-making in an emergent situation and ultimately accelerate vaccine development for these priority pathogens.” The first playbook is expected to be published online within a year under open access to ensure broad benefit to the research community.
Simultaneously, NanoViricides, Inc. announced a milestone in antiviral therapeutics with their broad-spectrum drug candidate NV-387 demonstrating strong antiviral activity against measles virus in a humanized animal model. Measles, a highly contagious viral disease, has seen a resurgence globally due to declining vaccination rates and vaccine hesitancy, making the development of an effective treatment critical.
In their study, NV-387 increased survival in a lethal measles respiratory infection model to an average of 17 days, compared to 7.4 days in untreated animals—a 130% improvement. Notably, no toxicity was observed, and a dose-dependent survival increase was recorded. Dr. Anil R. Diwan, a lead scientist at NanoViricides, stated, “NV-387 is on its way to become the very first drug to treat Measles.”
NV-387 operates by mimicking host cell features that viruses require for binding, effectively acting as a decoy. Upon binding to the drug, the virus is destroyed, preventing infection. This mechanism targets a sulfated proteoglycan feature present in over 90-95% of human pathogenic viruses. The company’s use of specially modified mice expressing the human CD150/SLAM protein—a receptor necessary for measles virus entry—was critical, as measles does not naturally infect mice.
The drug’s promise is bolstered by previous success against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a close relative of measles in the paramyxovirus family, which also uses heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) for initial attachment. While RSV primarily infects lung epithelial cells, measles targets immune cells bearing the CD150 receptor, underscoring NV-387’s broad antiviral potential given its targeting of shared viral attachment features.
Measles vaccination requires at least 95% population coverage to prevent outbreaks, but global vaccination rates are declining, particularly in industrialized nations. Additionally, vaccines do not provide treatment for those already infected. This gap underscores the urgent need for effective antiviral therapies like NV-387.
Founded in 2005 and publicly traded on the NYSE American exchange under the symbol NNVC, NanoViricides is advancing NV-387 into Phase II human clinical trials. Their pipeline also includes NV-HHV-1 for shingles treatment and investigational drugs targeting a broad array of viral diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, herpes, rabies, dengue fever, and Ebola.
Despite the promising data, NanoViricides cautions that drug development is a lengthy and uncertain process requiring significant capital and regulatory approvals. However, the company’s innovative nanomedicine platform, licensed from TheraCour Pharma, offers a unique approach by targeting viral entry mechanisms that viruses cannot easily evade.
Together, these developments from CEPI, PATH, and NanoViricides represent complementary strides in combating viral threats. While CEPI and PATH focus on streamlining vaccine development through better understanding of immune correlates of protection, NanoViricides is pioneering direct antiviral therapies that could fill critical treatment gaps, particularly for diseases like measles where vaccine coverage is insufficient or ineffective post-infection.
As infectious diseases continue to challenge global health systems, these advances offer hope for faster, more effective responses to outbreaks and epidemics. The coming year promises to be pivotal, with the release of CEPI and PATH’s first playbook and the progression of NV-387 into clinical trials, marking important steps toward enhanced preparedness and therapeutic options against some of the world’s most dangerous viral pathogens.
