Small molecule inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 identified by screening Even as the vaccine rollout continues against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), seeking to bring an end to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, new variants emerge that show immune escape capabilities. Effective and safe drugs thus remain essential to treat severe infections with this virus. A new preprint, released on the bioRxiv* server, describes the identification of small molecule inhibitors that block the catalytic activity of the crucial viral non-structural protein 5 (nsp5), using a large-scale screening method. The importance of nsp5 At least nine enzymes of the virus are important for viral proliferation and are thus ideal for the development of antiviral drugs. These enzymes have the same sequence between different coronaviruses, unlike the spike, nucleocapsid and other structural proteins that are less conserved. This makes vaccines based on the latter proteins more prone to immune evasion by viral escape mutations.