Emerging Pharmacotherapies for COVID-19

Abstract

—The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), current an unparalleled challenge in terms of identifying successful prevention and treatment medications. Clinicians need reliable evidence due to the rapid pace of scientific discovery and clinical data provided by the large number of people infected with SARS-CoV-2. The present review was conducted to summarize the repurposing efficacy of the currently used drugs against COVID-19. Number of antiviral drugs such as remdesivir, favipiravir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, lopinavir, ritonavir has shown inhibitory effects against the SARS-CoV-2 in-vitro as well as in clinical conditions. The immune based therapy like corticosteroids, tocilizumab, baricitinib, casirivimab, and bamlanvimab have shown some promise in more severe cases. Google Scholar, PubMed and SCOPUS were queried using a combination of the keywords “COVID-19,” SARS-CoV-2,” and “pharmacotherapy.” The type of studies that evaluated was clinical trial. Remdesivir has shown the best results and may now be an effective tool for reducing COVID-19 mortality, but more precise and potent antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 would be needed to stop current and/or potential coronavirus pandemics. While, immune based therapy using corticosteroids and anti- SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies may have their benefit in COVID-19 treatment.