Repositioning drugs and specific drugs in preclinical phase for COVID-19

Abstract

Drug repositioning is an activity commonly performed by laboratories, and consists of the commercial use of a drug for a different purpose for which it was investigated or approved. In 2009, the COVID-19 pandemic began, caused by a new virus, SARS-CoV-2, a virus for which the human population has no immunity, and for which there is no effective treatment. As a first strategy to treat severely ill patients, drugs were repositioned for emergency use if they were shown to be at least theoretically effective against SARS-CoV-2. Once the results of the clinical studies were available, their effectiveness in preventing severe and/or fatal cases was evaluated. If the drug showed significant effectiveness, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a recommendation for its use, otherwise a warning was issued to discontinue its use for COVID-19. This review describes the drugs that have been repositioned following this process, as well as the new SARS-CoV-2 specific drugs that are in experimental and preclinical phases.