Scientists at the National Institute of Oceanography, a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research institute, have discovered a 'product' that has, during preliminary screenings, shown qualities to fight respiratory-syncitical viruses, according to Professor N K Ganguly, Director General, Indian Council for Medical Research.

Respiratory-syncitical viruses cause lower respiratory tract infection and diseases like pneumonia, bronchitis, techno-bronchitis and laryngitis and no anti-virus is available for them.

During a meeting chaired by Dr Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, on Wednesday, it became known that the 'product' had also worked on some other groups of viruses, he added.

"Since there are not many products that showed these anti-viral qualities, the scientists will try to develop the product into an anti-viral. But it is a very preliminary stage and anti-viral drugs take years to develop," he explained.

A research laboratory in Russia has agreed with their preliminary findings, he said.

No clinical trials of the product have been held and the scientists are planning to test it against the corona-virus to verify whether it can be developed into an anti-SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] drug.