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Review
. 2023 Feb 1;11(2):332.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines11020332.

A Clinical Insight on New Discovered Molecules and Repurposed Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19

Surojit Banerjee  1 , Debadri Banerjee  1 , Anupama Singh  1 , Sumit Kumar  2 , Deep Pooja  3 , Veerma Ram  1 , Hitesh Kulhari  4 , Vikas Anand Saharan  1
Affiliations
Review

A Clinical Insight on New Discovered Molecules and Repurposed Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19

Surojit Banerjee et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began churning out incredulous terror in December 2019. Within several months from its first detection in Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 spread to the rest of the world through droplet infection, making it a pandemic situation and a healthcare emergency across the globe. The available treatment of COVID-19 was only symptomatic as the disease was new and no approved drug or vaccine was available. Another challenge with COVID-19 was the continuous mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and remdesivir, received emergency use authorization in various countries, but their clinical use is compromised with either severe and fatal adverse effects or nonavailability of sufficient clinical data. Molnupiravir was the first molecule approved for the treatment of COVID-19, followed by Paxlovid™, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), and others. New molecules have variable therapeutic efficacy against different variants or strains of SARS-CoV-2, which require further investigations. The aim of this review is to provide in-depth information on new molecules and repurposed drugs with emphasis on their general description, mechanism of action (MOA), correlates of protection, dose and dosage form, route of administration, clinical trials, regulatory approval, and marketing authorizations.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; antiviral; correlates of protection; cytokine blockers; monoclonal antibody.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of the survival rates of COVID-19 patients in clinical trials conducted with new discovered molecules.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of adverse events observed in COVID-19 patients in clinical trials conducted with new discovered molecules.
Figure 3
Figure 3
At a glance MOAs of newly discovered molecules for COVID-19 (figure is generated by ChemDraw Professional 15.1).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of survival rates of COVID-19 patients in clinical trials conducted with repurposed drugs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of adverse events observed in COVID-19 patients in clinical trials conducted with repurposed drugs.
Figure 6
Figure 6
At a glance MOAs of repurposed drugs (figure is generated by ChemDraw Professional 15.1).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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