Coronavirus Cure: 4 Drugs That May Be Repurposed To Neutralize The Covid-19 Outbreak

The coronavirus is something new and based on the reports, it was only discovered in December last year. However, at that time, it was not given attention because it seems that some people tried to cover it up.

In January, the first case made it to the news and COVID-19 is already spreading at this point. Not long when an outbreak hit China, other countries started reporting about cases in their region until it was finally declared a pandemic this month due to the sudden increase of cases worldwide.

Now, since this is the first time that doctors have encountered the COVID-19 infection, medicines to treat it are not yet available. In short, there is no cure yet but scientists and medical professionals are working round-the-clock to find and formulate appropriate treatment for coronavirus.

Clinical trials are underway but FDA approval may take time for new drugs. Thus, while these medicines are still being developed, research facilities and pharmaceutical companies are looking into existing drugs that can be repurposed to treat coronavirus-infected patients.

"It really has been a race against the clock," Nevan Krogan, director of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute, told ABC News. "I think it takes an average of at least six years in order to come up with a drug, but if we can use drugs that exist for other diseases and repurpose them, we may have drugs that we could be using right now."

It was said that to find which one could be useful for COVID-19, scientists are reviewing anti-viral drugs and they found at least four that may help. In another report, NBC News reported that these are the medicines that can be repurposed and temporarily use against the coronavirus.

Actemra and Other Rheumatoid Arthritis Medicines

This was used by doctors in China to stop the effects of the virus on critical patients. It proved useful as an anti-inflammation drug and its maker, Roche, is now talking to FDA for clinical trials. Normally, this is for treating moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis of adults.

Malaria drugs

Sanofi makes the malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine and it is checking out the risk and possible benefit that it can give for the management of COVID-19. The pharmaceutical company revealed that some health officials allowed the use of chloroquine for the coronavirus but they still need to get more data if it is effective.

HIV Drugs

According to The Sun, drugs for treating HIV can treat COVID-19 patients because they showed good response to the drug. This is a rarely used medicine but found to resist malaria.

“There have already been patients treated with these in Australia and there have been successful outcomes but it hasn’t been done in a controlled or a comparative way,” Prof. David Paterson, lead researcher at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, said.

Remdesivir

Finally, Remdesivir, a drug developed by Gilead Sciences to combat Ebola, is another potential treatment for coronavirus. It was previously tested to be effective in treating MERS in monkeys.