Repurposing of Drugs for COVID-19 Infections

In December 2019, the sudden emergence of severe respiratory disease caused by novel coronavirus-2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China has become a public health emergency. As of June 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 9,000,000 and mortality of more than 450,000 individuals, leading to devastating consequences worldwide. The persistent human-to-human transmission of nCoV-19 has prompted scientists to develop the treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Moreover, it has been declared as a pandemic and there is an urgent need for the development of treatment. However, there is no specific and effective treatment approved against COVID-19 to date. Developing a new drug is a time-consuming process, which is impractical to face the immediate global challenge. Thus, drug repurposing or drug repositioning is a strategy that allows the use of existing molecules against new indications. This chapter summarized various drugs repurposed against coronavirus disease 2019 along with the current challenges and future perspectives of drug repurposing against COVID-19.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Coronavirus disease 2019, Drug repositioning, Drug repurposing, Novel coronavirus-2019, Pandemic, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.