Current Research Data on Drug Therapy for Novel Coronavirus Associated Disease (COVID-19): Systematic Review

Objective: to analyze clinical studies of drugs used for COVID-19 prevention and treatment and to identify ongoing randomized controlled trials (RCT) of drugs used for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Methods. A systematic search of completed clinical studies was performed in MedLine database and in reference lists of the articles found. Ongoing RCT were looked for in clinicaltrials.gov; also the search was made in Google Scholar. Result. Drugs that are currently used for COVID-19 were assessed in 18 completed clinical studies of other infections, e.g. other coronaviruses and Ebola virus. 15 completed published studies were devoted to their use for COVID-19. Case series reports where COVID-19 drug therapy is mentioned, are cited as well. 41 RCT of COVID-19 therapy were registered in clinicaltrials.gov. Remdesivir, lopinavir/ritonavir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and favipiravir are studied most often. Still the results of the completed studies cannot justify confidently the recommendation to use any of the drugs for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Conclusion. Currently there is no clinical evidence to reliably support any of the drug’s efficacy for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Nevertheless, a lot of RCT are expected to be completed in the nearest future.