3.4 Anti-COVID drugs

Disclaimer: The APJO COVID-19 FAQs resource has aggregated the below third-party content and resources. For the avoidance of doubt, the views and opinions expressed are those of third-party authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any APJO/APAO/AAPPO affiliated agency, organisation or individual.

Reducing and managing fear is a major challenge for governments who are facing the COVID-19 outbreaks. Pharmaceutic companies and researchers around the world are racing to develop new effective treatments against the disease. Hundreds of thousands of compounds have been screened for their inhibitory effects against the SARS-CoV-2, among which ≥ 5 of them have entered phase IV clinical trial stage in China!

As of today, there are no proven effective treatment against COVID-19. The role of Traditional Chinese Medicine is to be explored. Recent randomized controlled trial found no benefit in the time to clinical improvement in lopinavir–ritonavir compared to the standard of care in hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19.

References
Sandro GVR, Wilson CS. Clinical trials on drug repositioning for COVID-19 treatment. Rev Panam Salud Publica. doi: https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.40