The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), also referred to as Novel
Coronavirus Disease, is a contagious viral disease with a high rate of confirmed cases.
Therefore, treatment options are urgently needed to fight the deadly virus. Since there
is no standard treatment available, it results in increased morbidity and mortality. The
development process of a new drug takes years, so it is crucial to focus on repurposed
drugs to reduce the severity of this disease. This review aims to describe the regulatory
and molecular aspects of repurposed and adjuvant drugs for COVID-19 based on
registered clinical trials and online literature. The use of repurposed drugs brings its
own ethical issues and challenges. The challenges of the correct interpretation of
existing pre-clinical/clinical evidence and the generation of new evidence concerning
drug repurposing in COVID-19 and the issues faced by the repurposing community
will also be discussed in the review. When drug repurposing is employed in emergency
situations, regional limitations of clinical research ethics, involuntary risk burden,
regulatory aspects and ethical issues, fairness in resource distribution for repurposed
drugs become an issue that requires careful ethical consideration.
Keywords: Adjuvant drugs, COVID-19, Ethical issues, Repurposed drugs.
