Title:Drug Discovery of Small Molecules for the Treatment of COVID-19: A Review on Clinical Studies
Volume: 21
Issue: 12
Author(s): Bharat Goel, Nivedita Bhardwaj, Nancy Tripathi and Shreyans K. Jain*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, 221005, Uttar Pradesh,India
Keywords:
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, clinical trials, small molecules, drug repurposing, natural products.
Abstract: Recently, a sudden outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was caused by a zoonotic
virus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). It has caused
pandemic situations around the globe affecting the lives of millions of people. So far, no drug has been
approved for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. As of now, more than 1000 clinical trials
are going on for repurposing of FDA-approved drugs and for evaluating the safety and efficiency of
experimental antiviral molecules to combat COVID-19. Since the development of new drugs may require
months to years to reach the market, this review focusses on the potential of existing small molecule
FDA approved drugs and the molecules already in the clinical pipeline against viral infections like
HIV, hepatitis B, Ebola virus, and other viruses of coronavirus family (SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV).
The review also discusses the natural products and traditional medicines in clinical studies against
COVID-19. Currently, 1978 studies are active, 143 completed and 4 posted results (as of June 13, 2020)
on clinicaltrials.gov.
