Therapeutic Agents for COVID-19: an Overview

Background: The pathological agent of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 has its origin in Wuhan, China, and spread to other provinces of China and subsequently to other countries resulting in a pandemic worldwide. The virus is extremely contagious and causes pneumonia and respiratory failure. Since its emergence, researchers around the world are trying to develop vaccines and find suitable drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Objective: To give an overview of the various therapeutic agents for COVID-19 such as vaccines and drugs that are in preclinical stage or under different stages of clinical trials. Results: As per World Health Organization (WHO), there are 137 vaccines under development to date, out of which few vaccines have successfully completed preclinical studies and reached clinical trials. According to the present scenario, only one coronavirus vaccine (sputnik-V) has been approved by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. Till date, there are no United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved drugs to treat COVID-19 patients. However, depending on patient’s condition, different drugs such as antiviral agents like Remdesivir, antimalarial drugs like Hydroxychloroquine, antibiotics like Azithromycin and corticosteroids like Dexamethasone are being applied and some of them have proved to be effective up to a certain extent. Conclusion: Although several vaccines for COVID-19 are under development and various drugs have been tried for its treatment, an ideal drug candidate or a vaccine is still lacking. Almost all the big pharmaceutical companies are associated with one or more research initiatives in order to develop vaccines and drugs. Many of them are going through clinical stages, expecting a positive outcome by the end of 2020.