The List of drugs for possible Corona Treatment / The Latest Research on COVID-19 Treatments and Medications.

The Latest Research on COVID-19 Treatments and Medications in the Pipeline

There are no approved coronavirus treatments at this time. The drug that’s furthest on in clinical trials for treating COVID-19 is remdesivir, a brand new endovenous antiviral that the authority has not nevertheless approved. However, they did grant an emergency use authorization for it to make it more accessible. Researchers are also testing older medications (that are typically used to treat other conditions) to see if they are also useful in treating COVID-19.

0ver 4 million people worldwide have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and that number is quickly growing. Our healthcare system is becoming increasingly strained, and we are in desperate need of safe and effective treatment for COVID-19.Scientists round the world square measure athletics against the clock to search out a cure. Here’s what we know so far about emerging therapies for coronavirus, and we will update this article as more information becomes available.

Hospitals and research labs all over the world are testing many different therapies on coronavirus-positive patients to find potential COVID-19 treatment. Below we highlight a few medications and procedures that have been making a buzz in the science community.

These are the List of Drugs By using in The Corona Virus Treatment.

1) Remdesivir

Remdesivir is associate antiviral that's given by endovenous (IV) infusion within the hospital. This is a brand-new drug that has not been approved by the FDA for use on the market yet and is being tested in carefully controlled environments. It was previously shown to have some effect against SARS, MERS, and Ebola in cell and animal models. In a recent in vitro study (studies were done in a petri dish or test tube rather than in animals or humans), remdesivir prevented human cells from being infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).

Doctors across the U.S. are enrolling patients with severe COVID-19 into clinical trials to see if remdesivir is an effective treatment. Gilead recently announced early results from a Phase 3 trial. According to the manufacturer, half of the patients who got remdesivir saw improvements in about 10 days (regardless of whether they were treated for 5 or 10 days) and more than half were discharged from the hospital by week 2.

Early results from a large U.S. study of 1,063 patients showed that people who got remdesivir recovered faster compared to those who got a placebo (11 days vs. 15 days, respectively). The death rate in the remdesivir group (8%) was also lower than the placebo group (11%). More details from this study, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), are expected to be shared soon.

Based on the positive reports from these two studies, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for remdesivir on May 1, 2020. The EUA doesn't mean that the agency has approved remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19. Instead, the EUA intends to make it easier for doctors to get remdesivir for hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms. These are the patients who require mechanical ventilation or extra oxygen. More information about the remdesivir EUA can be found here.

In addition to the study above, a small study of 61 patients who were severely ill with COVID-19 and received remdesivir through a compassionate use program was published earlier in April 2020. (Compassionate use is a way for people to receive experimental drugs without being in a clinical trial.) Data for eight patients were unavailable, but for the remaining 53 patients, 36 (68%) needed less oxygen support after treatment, and 7 (13%) died.

Because this was through a compassionate use program, limited data was collected. For example, information about viral load (the amount of virus in the body) was not available, so we do not know if remdesivir was effective in clearing the infection. Additionally, there was not a comparison group, so it is difficult to tell whether patients would have improved on their own without taking remdesivir.

Not all remdesivir studies have been positive. Take a survey of 236 patients with COVID-19 in China, for example. (This was a randomized, double-blinded study, which is the gold standard for clinical trials.) In one specific analysis, a group of patients in the study who received remdesivir within 10 days of showing symptoms recovered slightly more quickly than those who received a placebo.

However, this difference was not statistically significant, meaning it could have been due to chance. When looking at all patients in the study (regardless of when they received remdesivir), there was no difference in time to improvement compared to placebo. The researchers state that more extensive studies are needed to confirm the results.

2) Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are two medications that have been used for many decades to treat malaria and autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

A few small studies suggest that they may also help treat hospitalized patients with mild cases of COVID-19, while other studies showed that hydroxychloroquine did not make a difference.

More robust studies are needed to confirm whether these medications work. More detailed information about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine studies can be found here.

3) Azithromycin

Azithromycin (informally known as a Z-pak) is an antibiotic commonly used to treat bacterial infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. It has been shown to have some in vitro activity against viruses like influenza A and Zika but did not work against the coronavirus that causes MERS.

One analysis cluster checked out azithromycin together with anti-inflammatory for COVID-19. They reported that 93% of patients cleared the virus after eight days, but there was no control group, so we don’t know.

If people would have cleared the virus on their own without the medications, there are concerns about potentially dangerous side effects when using azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine together.

4) Convalescent plasma

On March 24, 2020, the FDA issued an Emergency Investigational New Drug (eIND) application for the use of convalescent plasma to treat people with COVID-19. Plasma is a liquids part of the blood that carries blood cells.

Convalescent plasma is collected from those who have recovered from COVID-19. It is then transfused into someone with an active coronavirus infection. It is thought that antibodies found in the convalescent plasma can help fight the coronavirus infection.

In China, 10 adults with severe COVID-19 symptoms were given convalescent plasma. The researchers reported that all symptoms (such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain) had significantly improved within three days.

Compared to a historical control group (a random group of patients who were previously hospitalized for COVID-19), the group who received convalescent plasma saw better improvements in their health.

The first convalescent plasma transfusion in the U.S. for COVID-19 was recently done in Texas. A physician can request convalescent plasma on an individual basis by contacting their local blood centre, but it’s not widely available since centres have just recently begun collecting it.

5) Actemra (tocilizumab)

Actemra is a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) approved for rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. (Both are inflammatory diseases.) It works by blocking interleukin-6 (IL-6), a protein involved in our natural immune responses.

IL-6 signals typically other cells to activate the immune system, but too much activation can cause issues. One severe possible point with an overactive immune system is a cytokine storm, a potentially fatal problem in which the immune system goes haywire, and inflammation gets out of control.

With COVID-19, people can be at risk of cytokine storms as their bodies continue to ramp up their immune system to fight off the infection. By blocking IL-6, Actemra helps to calm down the immune system and is believed to also help with managing cytokine storms. A study from France reported that people who got Actemra were less likely to require ventilation or die.

Other medications that affect the body’s immune response are also being tested for COVID-19. These include:

Calquence (acalabrutinib)
Xeljanz (tofacitinib)
Jakafi (ruxolitinib)
Olumiant (baricitinib)
Kineret (anakinra)
Ilaris (canakinumab)
Otezla (apremilast)

Kevzara (sarilumab), which works similarly to Actemra, is also being tested for COVID-19. Early results were not promising. They showed that patients with severe symptoms who got Kevzara did worse compared to placebo, but patients who had even more severe (critical) symptoms improved compared to placebo. The manufacturers are now scaling back their studies to only include COVID-19 patients in critical condition.

6) Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir)

Kaletra is Associate in Nursing HIV medication containing a mixture of 2 antivirals referred to as lopinavir and protease inhibitor.In vitro and clinical studies gazing patients WHO had antecedently received these antiviral agents counsel that they will have some activity against respiratory disease and MERS (infections caused by other coronaviruses).

Data for using Kaletra in COVID-19 is limited. In one randomized study of 199 people hospitalized with COVID-19, there was no difference between using Kaletra and not using it in terms of how long it took for patients to improve.

Another small study of 127 people with mild COVID-19 symptoms looked at Kaleta alone compared to Kaletra in combination with interferon beta-1b and ribavirin. They found that the cluster WHO got all 3 medications improved sooner and cleared the virus quicker (7 days) than people who solely got Kaletra (12 days).

7) Tamiflu (oseltamivir)

Tamiflu is an antiviral medication used for influenza (flu). Results from a hospital in Wuhan, China, were not promising. Of 138 hospitalized patients, 124 got Tamiflu along with other medications.

By the end of the study, 85 patients (62%) were still hospitalized, and 6 had died. Nonetheless, several clinical trials are currently looking at Tamiflu in combination with other medications for coronavirus.

8)Avigan (favipiravir) and other antiviral medications

Favipiravir (also known as Avigan) is an antiviral medication approved in Japan and China for the flu. In vitro studies have shown that high doses of favipiravir were able to prevent human cells from being infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Two studies in China looked at how favipiravir worked in comparison to other antivirals. In a study of 240 patients in China with mild COVID-19 symptoms, 71% of patients given favipiravir recovered after seven days compared to 56% who were given umifenovir (Arbidol).

Another little study in China checked out eighty patients with gentle COVID-19 symptoms and saw that that favipiravir helped to clear the virus quicker than Kaletra (4 days vs.11 days, respectively).

The patients who took favipiravir also showed more significant improvements in their lungs based on chest images. The first U.S.clinical trials for favipiravir were recently approved to start out in Beantown.

Other antivirals being tested for COVID-19 embody umifenovir and galidesivir:

Umifenovir (Arbidol) could be a contagious disease medication that's used outside the U.S. As mentioned above, it was not as good as favipiravir in helping patients recover in a study from China. Another study of 81 patients looked at how long it took from when patients first had symptoms when they tested negative for the coronavirus. It found that there was no difference between people who got umifenovir and those who did not.

However, it seems to be better than Kaletra at helping patients with COVID-19 clear the virus.In a little study of fifty folks, the virus wasn't detected in any patients WHO had received umifenovir once fourteen days. The virus was still present in almost half of the patients who got Kaletra.

Galidesivir could be a new drug that's presently being developed for a range of infective agent infections; it's not however been approved for human use.Clinical trials for galidesivir square measure beginning in Brazil.

9) Colcrys (colchicine)

Colchicine is a medication used for gout. It works in many different ways, including activating anti-inflammatory processes and interfering with cells involved in inflammation.

Researchers think that colchicine could work similarly to Actemra in COVID-19 patients in that it might be helpful if the immune system becomes too activated and a cytokine storm occurs.

A large clinical trial is currently seeing if colchicine, when given soon after a COVID-19 diagnosis, can lower the chances of hospitalization and death.

10) Ivermectin

Ivermectin is an oral medication used to treat infections caused by parasites.It is additionally on the market as a lotion or cream to treat lice and acne rosacea. A recent in vitro study found that ivermectin can stop SARS-CoV-2 from replicating. A lot more research is needed to see if the doses studied would be safe and effective against the virus in humans.

What are FDA-approved treatments for coronavirus (COVID-19)?

There are currently no FDA-approved treatments for coronavirus.The bureau recently created a brand new emergency program, Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP), aimed toward rushing up analysis for the event of COVID-19 treatments.

For now, the treatment for patients with mild symptoms is to self-isolate at home.

Patients who are hospitalized receive supportive care (such as oxygen), enrol in clinical trials and are given medications off-label based on hospital guidelines and their doctors’ clinical judgement.