Drug Repurposing in the COVID-19 Era: Insights from Case Studies Showing Pharmaceutical Peculiarities.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 may lead to severe respiratory distress syndrome and high risk of death in some patients. So far (January 2021), only the antiviral remdesivir has been approved, although no significant benefits in terms of mortality and clinical improvement were recently reported. In a setting where effective and safe treatments for COVID-19 are urgently needed, drug repurposing may take advantage of the fact that the safety profile of an agent is already well known and allows rapid investigation of the efficacy of potential treatments, at lower costs and with reduced risk of failure. Furthermore, novel pharmaceutical formulations of older agents (e.g., aerosolized administration of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, heparin, pirfenidone) have been tested in order to increase pulmonary d

SUBMITTER: Gatti M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7996547 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature