MIRACLE MOLECULE, CHRONOLOGY OF A HOPE

A suppository against Covid

Synopsis

March 2020. As soon as the word "pandemic" is officially out, a task force is set up at the Pasteur Institute in France. Researchers, virologists, biologists, and pharmacists get together to find a cure for Covid-19.

They give themselves two months to identify among the 2,000 active ingredients contained in their chemical library the one capable of inhibiting the multiplication of SARS-Cov-2. By May 2020, they identify clofoctol. Marketed in the form of suppositories since the 1970s and sold at an extremely low price, this antibiotic is prescribed to treat bacterial infections of the respiratory tract.

An incredible obstacle course begins.