Adam Kovalcik from Slovakia – credit, Chris Ayers, licensed by the Society for Science

Self-described as merely “someone from a small village in a small European country” young Adam Kovalčík won the top prize in America’s most prestigious science fair with his invention of a quicker, cheaper method of making a popular antiviral drug out of corn husk.

Reducing the cost per gram from $75.00 to just $12.00, and the production time per batch from 9 days to just 5, it could dramatically increase the supply of galidesivir, used to treat RNA viruses ebola, Marburg, Zitka, and SARS CoV-2.

The 19-year-old from Dulovce, Slovakia, flew to Ohio to attend the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science and engineering competition, hosted by the Society for Science.

Kovalčík won the $100,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award, the highest honor available, for his presentation on the production of galidesivir from corn waste, which the judges described as a “bullet proof” presentation.

“I cannot describe this feeling,” Kovalčík told Business Insider. “I did not expect such a huge international competition to be won by someone from a small village in a small European country, so it was just pure shock.”

His innovation essentially arrives at the production of galidesivir via “another door,” one through which only 10 steps are needed rather than 15. The molecule at the heart of Kovalčík’s process is called furfuryl alcohol, distilled from corn husks.

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One by one, a series of chemicals are added until the mixture obtains the composition of aza-saccheride, a sugar from which only three more changes are needed to get to galidesivir.

“He was able to shortcut this entire process,” Chris RoDee, a chemist and retired patent examiner who judged the competition, told Business Insider. “He basically halved the number of steps because he just went in through a different door.”

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Kovalčík has already filed a preliminary patent for his production process, plans to work with a research group at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava to improve the process, and has concocted an idea to use his prize money to start a company that manufactures eco-friendly perfumes from corn.

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