COVID-19 drug development has goal treatment of COVID-19
Repurposed drug candidates
Drug repositioning (also called drug repurposing) – the investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes – is one line of scientific research followed to develop safe and effective COVID-19 treatments. Several existing antiviral medications, previously developed or used as treatments for Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), HIV/AIDS, and malaria, are being researched as COVID-19 treatments, with some moving into clinical trials.During the COVID-19 pandemic, drug repurposing is the clinical research process of rapidly screening and defining the safety and efficacy of existing drugs already approved for other diseases to be used for people with COVID-19 infection. In the usual drug development process, confirmation of repurposing for new disease treatment would take many years of clinical research – including pivotal Phase III clinical trials – on the candidate drug to assure its safety and efficacy specifically for treating COVID-19 infection. In the emergency of a growing COVID-19 pandemic, the drug repurposing process was being accelerated during March 2020 to treat people hospitalized with COVID-19.Clinical trials using repurposed, generally safe, existing drugs for hospitalized COVID-19 people may take less time and have lower overall costs to obtain endpoints proving safety (absence of serious side effects) and post-infection efficacy, and can rapidly access existing drug supply chains for manufacturing and worldwide distribution. In an international effort to capture these advantages, the WHO began in mid-March 2020 expedited international Phase II–III trials on four promising treatment options – the SOLIDARITY trial – with numerous other drugs having potential for repurposing in different disease treatment strategies, such as anti-inflammatory, corticosteroid, antibody, immune, and growth factor therapies, among others, being advanced into Phase II or III trials during 2020.In March 2020, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a physician advisory concerning remdesivir for people hospitalized with pneumonia caused by COVID-19: "While clinical trials are critical to establish the safety and efficacy of this drug, clinicians without access to a clinical trial may request remdesivir for compassionate use through the manufacturer for patients with clinical pneumonia."