4/9/2020 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7144665/
Ongoing Clinical Trials for the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
COVID-19 has rapidly developed into a worldwide pandemic with a significant health and economic burden. There are currently no approved treatments or preventative therapeutic strategies. Hundreds of clinical studies have been registered with the intention of discovering effective treatments. Here, we review currently registered interventional clinical trials for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 to provide an overall summary and insight into the global response. . . .
Antiviral Treatments
As briefly mentioned earlier, many studies have focused on repurposing established antiviral therapies, especially those that showed prior efficacy against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The combination of lopinavir/ritonavir is the most common exploratory antiviral, appearing in 34 investigational studies (Table 1A: Antivirals). Both drugs function as protease inhibitors and are used extensively in the management of HIV-1 [9]. However, lopinavir has insufficient oral bioavailability for significant therapeutic activity, due to rapid catabolism by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system (specifically 3A4 isoenzyme) [9]. Thus, ritonavir is given concomitantly to inhibit this, significantly boosting the half-life of lopinavir. Lopinavir/ritonavir was investigated for efficacy against SARS-CoV in 2004 and found to be effective compared with a historical control [10]. . . ,
Remdesivir is a novel nucleotide analogue antiviral, initially developed for the management of the Ebola and Marburg viruses [12,13]. However, it has efficacy against a range of pathogenic viruses, including both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in in vitro and in vivo models [12,14]. . . ,
Several other antiviral drugs are being investigated, predominately those with activity against various fluenza subtypes and other RNA viruses. These include favipiravir (T-705, Avigan), umifenovir(Arbidol), triazavirin (TZV), and baloxavir marboxil(Xofluza). Many trials are focusing on drugs typically used in the management of RNA viruses, such as HCV and HIV. These include danoprevir/ritonavir, azvudine, sofosbuvir/ledipasvir, sofosbuvir/daclatasvir, darunavir/cobicistat, and emtricitabine/ tenofovir (Table 1A: Antivirals). Additionally, there are 26 studies investigating the utility of antiviral interferon-based treatments, interestingly also looking at various different routes of administration (e.g., nasal). . . .