INSIDEBULLS

[Rocketred]

Scientists here have screened about 125 compounds since receiving a plastic foam box containing samples of the SARS virus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month.

"We're not trying to be too clever, because we don't know enough about the virus to be too clever," said John W. Huggins, chief of viral therapeutics in the institute's virology division and head of the 20-member SARS team.

Already, they have determined that one leading drug, ribavirin, used in combination with steroids on SARS patients in Toronto and Hong Kong, is not effective.

The only drug that has stopped the new coronavirus from replicating is interferon. But scientists fear that the dose required is too toxic to be safe.