Might be ideal as a prophylaxis for people who work in high risk areas like an ICU. Or reponding to a coronavirus outbreak wherever it occurs. The IV drug they are working on seems to target the same enzyme, 3CL protease. It appears they were working on this way back during SARS-1.
https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/drug-discovery/Pfizers-novel-COVID-19-antiviral/98/web/2020/09
From the link above:
“Pfizer chemists first discovered that active compound, which was designed to target the 3CL protease of SARS-CoV, during the 2002–2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). But infections petered out and the compound, along with a collection of other potential coronavirus antivirals, was shelved.”
If it truly is a “pan-corona” cure, it could be quite a breakthrough.
A broad spectrum protease inhibitor would be like a broad spectrum antibiotic the brute force approach. If they found one that targets corona viri then all the variants and anything else the chicoms cook up would be killable this removing the draw to keep.developing weapons in the corona virus platform. Yes truly a breakthrough if they have one tolerated well by humans.