Treatment Research (Timeline)

Learn from the news about the search for effective drugs among existing drugs, drug development and the development of other kinds of treatments against Covid-19.

Click on dark blue words or terms to see their meaning in the glossary.

SciAm: COVID Antibody Treatments Show Promise for Preventing Severe Disease
(March 16, 2021)

PJ: Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 therapy trials
(March 15, 2021)

nature: COVID antibody treatments show promise for preventing severe disease
(March 12, 2021)

Science: Researchers race to develop antiviral weapons to fight the pandemic coronavirus
(March 11, 2021)

CBS: Finding a possible early treatment for COVID-19 in a 40-year-old antidepressant
(60 Minutes video)
(March 7, 2021)

fluvoxamine

FDA: Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19 (March 5, 2021)

MOVED OR REMOVED FROM www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19Science: International megatrial of coronavirus treatments is at a standstill
(March 3, 2021)

SciAm: To Beat COVID, We May Need a Good Shot in the Nose
(March 1, 2021)

PopSci: Can you get COVID-19 again? We answered some common coronavirus questions.
(February 10, 2021)
MOVED OR REMOVED

Science: World’s largest COVID-19 drug trial identifies second compound that cuts risk of death

SciAm: Why It’s So Hard to Make Antiviral Drugs for COVID and Other Diseases

Science: Monoclonal antibodies protect against COVID-19 in a second study
(January 26, 2021)

STAT: Eli Lilly says its monoclonal antibody prevented Covid-19 infections in clinical trial
(January 21, 2021)

The Lancet: The effect of early treatment with ivermectin on viral load, symptoms and humoral response in patients with non-severe COVID-19
(January 19, 2021)

  • In this study, some benefits have been found for treating Covid-19 (“marked reduction of self-reported anosmia/hyposmia, a reduction of cough and a tendency to lower viral loads and lower IgG titers“) which would warrant further testing in larger clinical trials.

nature: Rogue antibodies could be driving severe COVID-19
(January 19, 2021)

nature: COVID research updates: Two anti-inflammatory drugs prevent COVID deaths
(January 15, 2021)

  • Tocilizumab and sarilumab have been tested at Imperial College London.

FDA: FAQ: COVID-19 and Ivermectin Intended for Animals (December 16, 2020)

SciAm: These Drugs Might Prevent Severe COVID (December 14, 2020)

  • These are Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody combination, remdesivir, molnupiravir, fluvoxamine and mini binders (synthetic antibodies).

Medical Dialogues: COVID-19: Antiviral drug Molnupiravir blocks virus transmission within 24 hours, claims Study (December 7, 2020)

Science: First-of-its-kind African trial tests common drugs to prevent severe COVID-19
(December 3, 2020)

STAT: As a new Covid-19 treatment arrives, hospitals scramble to solve logistical and ethical challenges (November 20, 2020)

STAT: WHO group recommends against using remdesivir to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients (November 19, 2020)

  • The WHO’s Guideline Development Group bases this recommendation on:
    • Lack of evidence of improving “patient-important outcomes”
      (reducing mortality, ventilation…)
      • This does not imply “proof” of its ineffectiveness.
    • Price, expense of delivering it intravenously, “potential harm”.

SciAm: For COVID Drugs, Months of Frantic Development Lead to Few Outright Successes
(November 13, 2020)

STAT: Pill used to treat OCD and anxiety may prevent Covid-19 from worsening, a preliminary study suggests (November 12, 2020)

Wired: The Strange and Twisted Tale of Hydroxychloroquine (November 11, 2020)

Science: Can a nose-full of chicken antibodies ward off coronavirus infections?
(November 10, 2020)

  • “A clinical trial has begun in Australia to find out whether nasal drops that contain chicken antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can offer temporary protection.”

SciAm: Can My Blood Really Help COVID Patients? (November 3, 2020)

STAT: Antibody drugs seem to work. But the virus is moving faster than we can make them
(October 29, 2020)

SN: The arthritis drug tocilizumab doesn’t appear to help fight COVID-19
(October 23, 2020)

nature: The race to make COVID antibody therapies cheaper and more potent
(October 23, 2020)

AP: FDA approves first COVID-19 drug: antiviral remdesivir (October 22, 2020)

FDA: FDA Approves First Treatment for COVID-19 (October 22, 2020)

  • “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the antiviral drug Veklury (remdesivir)…”

nature: Latin America’s embrace of an unproven COVID treatment is hindering drug trials
(October 20, 2020)

  • This is the anti-parasite ivermectin.

Science: Remdesivir and interferon fall flat in WHO’s megastudy of COVID-19 treatments
(October 16, 2020)

STAT: Watch: Understanding dexamethasone, the steroid used to treat Trump’s Covid-19
(October 12, 2020)

SciAm: Lab-Made ‘Miniproteins’ Could Block the Coronavirus from Infecting Cells
(October 12, 2020)

STAT: Eli Lilly says its monoclonal antibody cocktail is effective in treating Covid-19
(October 7, 2020)

PopSci: These are the best COVID-19 treatments right now (October 5, 2020)

Science: ‘Provocative results’ boost hopes of antibody treatment for COVID-19
(September 30, 2020)

Science: Eli Lilly reports first, promising results for an antibody against COVID-19
(September 16, 2020)

SciAm: An Immune Protein Could Prevent Severe COVID-19—if It Is Given at the Right Time
(September 2020 issue) (September 7, 2020)

NYT: Steroids Can Be Lifesaving for Sickest Patients, Studies Show (September 2, 2020)

PopSci: Evidence for Convalescent Plasma Coronavirus Treatment Lags Behind Excitement
(August 24, 2020)

STAT: Is convalescent plasma safe and effective? We answer the major questions about the Covid-19 treatment (August 23, 2020)

nature: Evidence lags behind excitement over blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment
(August 19, 2020)

NYT: F.D.A.’s Emergency Approval of Blood Plasma Is Now on Hold (August 19, 2020)

SciAm: Costa Rica Readies Horse Antibodies for Trials as an Inexpensive COVID-19 Therapy
(August 17, 2020)

STAT: Large study suggests convalescent plasma can help treat Covid-19, but experts have doubts (August 13, 2020)

nature: Antibody therapies could be a bridge to a coronavirus vaccine — but will the world benefit? (August 11, 2020)

STAT: Inspired by llamas’ unique antibodies, scientists create a potent anti-coronavirus molecule (August 11, 2020)

STAT: Yes, we need a vaccine to control Covid-19. But we need new treatments, too
(August 5, 2020)

  • “In addition to saving lives and boosting hospital capacity, an effective treatment could also increase people’s willingness to return to more normal levels of economic activity.”
  • “If an effective treatment could be found that prevents severe disease — or, even better, provides a cure — the urgent need to vaccinate millions of healthy people would diminish.”
  • “More realistically, we will need to manage Covid-19, and possibly other novel viruses, for years to come. A vital tool will be effective treatments.”

Science: Designer antibodies could battle COVID-19 before vaccines arrive (August 4, 2020)

MedScape: Colchicine Promising in COVID-19 Treatment? (July 30, 2020)

  • Clinical results show that colchicine might help in the treatment of serious Covid-19 by reducing inflammation.

SciAm: An Immune Protein Could Prevent Severe COVID-19—if It Is Given at the Right Time
(July 28, 2020)

  • Interferon could help prevent severe Covid-19 if given early, but make the disease more severe if given later.

STAT: NIH to start ‘flurry’ of large studies of potential Covid-19 treatments
(July 23, 2020)

STAT: Using a global network of adaptive clinical trials to fight Covid-19 (Opinion)
(July 23, 2020)

STAT: Once a relic of medical history, radiation emerges as an intriguing — and divisive — treatment for Covid-19 (July 16, 2020)

STAT: From Houston to Miami, hospitals running short of remdesivir for Covid-19 patients
(July 10, 2020)

SWI: Basel study: hydroxychloroquine not effective (July 10, 2020)

Science: Can boosting interferons, the body’s frontline virus fighters, beat COVID-19?
(July 8, 2020)

BBC: Coronavirus cure: What progress are we making on treatments? (July 8, 2020)

Pharmaceutical Journal: Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 therapy trials
(July 8, 2020)

BMJ: Dexamethasone in the management of Covid-19 (July 3, 2020)

  • “Unresolved questions remain, however. RECOVERY investigators did not explore optimal type of corticosteroid nor timing, dose, or duration of giving this drug class.”

Science: One U.K. trial is transforming COVID-19 treatment. Why haven’t others delivered more results? (June 30, 2020)

STAT: Gilead announces long-awaited price for Covid-19 drug remdesivir (June 29, 2020)

  • “For all governments in the developed world, including the U.S. government’s Medicaid program and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Gilead will charge $2,340 for a five-day course. U.S. insurers will pay 33% more, or $3,120. Countries in the developing world will get the drug at greatly reduced prices through generic manufacturers to which Gilead has licensed production.”

SciAm: Hospitals Experiment with COVID-19 Treatments, Balancing Hope and Evidence
(June 29, 2020)

  • “With little data on what works and what doesn’t, doctors trade tips and argue about risks.”

Science: Drug recently shown to reduce coronavirus death risk could run out, experts warn
(June 21, 2020)

  • “Hoarding and speculative procurement [of dexamethasone] appear to have already started.”

STAT: WHO drops hydroxychloroquine from Covid-19 clinical trial (June 17, 2020)

  • “Patients who were already enrolled and were in the midst of their hydroxychloroquine regimen can complete their course or stop, the WHO said.”
  • “The Solidarity trial is continuing to compare other potential Covid-19 drugs. More than 400 hospitals in 35 countries are participating in the study.”

nature: Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives
(June 16, 2020)

  • Dexamethasone, “an inexpensive and commonly used steroid can save the lives of people seriously ill with COVID-19, a randomized, controlled clinical trial in the United Kingdom has found.”
  • “In the trial, it cut deaths by about one-third in patients who were on ventilators because of coronavirus infection.”
  • This drug is far more accessible than remdesivir (which is in short supply) and is much easier to administer.
  • “For less than £50 [63 USD], you can treat 8 patients and save one life.”

STAT: Major study finds common steroid reduces deaths among patients with severe Covid-19 (June 16, 2020)

  • Dexamethasone reduced the number of deaths by 35% for patients on ventilators and 20% for unventilated patients on oxygen. These figures are significant. However, no benefit was found for patients not requiring oxygen.

NYT: Coronavirus Live Updates: Drug Proven to Reduce Virus Deaths, Scientists Say
(June 16, 2020)

  • “Scientists at the University of Oxford said on Tuesday that they have identified what they called the first drug proven to reduce coronavirus-related deaths, after a 6,000-patient trial of the drug in Britain showed that a low-cost steroid could reduce deaths significantly for hospitalized patients.”

STAT: FDA revokes emergency use ruling for hydroxychloroquine (June 15, 2020)

  • The US FDA considers HCQ to be ineffective for treating Covid-19, but doctors may still use the drug off-label.

Forbes: How Low-Dose Radiation Could Be The Trick For Treating COVID-19
(June 13, 2020)

  • “It’s the anti-inflammatory effects of radiation, not its antiviral action, that could be invaluable to helping patients with COVID-19.”

nature: Coronavirus research updates: Modified mice could aid the quest for vaccines and drugs (June 12, 2020)

  • A team in the US and one in China have successfully used an adenovirus to introduce the gene that expresses the human ACE2 receptor into mice, which normally cannot catch Covid-19. This allows them to become infected so they can be used for laboratory experiments.

Science: Three big studies dim hopes that hydroxychloroquine can treat or prevent COVID-19 (June 9, 2020)

  • After three large studies on HCQ, scientists are losing hope for any significant benefit from the drug, although some still want to see all the data before deciding.

STAT: To allocate remdesivir fairly, give it to communities that bear a disproportionate burden of Covid-19 (June 9, 2020)

Science: Who’s to blame? These three scientists are at the heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal (June 8, 2020)

STAT: Study: Hydroxychloroquine had no benefit for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, possibly closing door to use of drug (June 5, 2020)

nature: High-profile coronavirus retractions raise concerns about data oversight
(June 5, 2020)

  • Articles in question during the past three days were retracted because the little-known company Surgisphere that supplied the researchers data from hospitals worldwide did not allow its raw data to be verified.
  • “This whole event is catastrophic — it is problematic for the journals involved, it is problematic for the integrity of science, it is problematic for medicine, and it is problematic for the notion of clinical trials and evidence generation.”

This is far from the ideal way for science to advance. Science will eventually advance, even if those involved in scientific research are not honest, but it slows science down, which is unfortunate during a time when we need science. Even if the company supplying the data made honest mistakes, researchers must do their part to verify the data. As top journals were involved, I would think this is very embarrassing for them. – MH

Science: This cow’s antibodies could be the newest weapon against COVID-19
(June 5, 2020)

  • A biotech company in South Dakota, USA, has inserted genes into the DNA of cows so that certain immune cells will produce antibodies in the same way it happens in the human body. Antigens introduced into the cows such as the SARS-CoV-2 spike will then produce human antibodies.
  • One advantage of this method is that different kinds of antibodies could be produced that attach to different parts of the virus.
  • In clinical trials these antibodies appear to be four times better than convalescent plasma in preventing the virus from entering cells.
  • One cow could produce enough antibodies for hundreds of people per month.
  • “Essentially, the cows are used as a giant bioreactor.”
  • Clinical trials will begin to see if these antibodies can prevent infections.
  • There has never yet been any approval for treatment of any antibodies produced in animals.
  • “The whole approach is based on sound science and on past experience going back more than a century.”

PopSci: A major study just found hydroxychloroquine doesn’t prevent COVID-19
(June 4, 2020)

nature: The coronavirus outbreak could make it quicker and easier to trial drugs
(June 4, 2020)

  • “Remote clinical trials and other changes could permanently alter pharmaceutical development.”

STAT: WHO resumes hydroxychloroquine study for Covid-19, after reviewing safety concerns (June 3, 2020)

  • The WHO resumed its trials after another HCQ study was called into question. (See yesterday’s news sources.)

PopSci: Hydroxychloroquine is getting another shot as a COVID-19 treatment
(June 3, 2020)

  • A simpler article explaining the issues surrounding the retraction of an HCQ study discussed in other news articles yesterday and today.

Science: A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be unraveling (June 2, 2020)

  • An investigation is now underway on Surgisphere, a relatively unknown company that provided seemingly implausible data on deaths of Covid-19 patients for a hydroxychloroquine study that concluded that the drug was associated with a high risk of death. (These results made the WHO decide to suspend its trials of the drug.)
  • Two other studies that used Surgisphere’s data also produced controversial results.

STAT news also wrote about this same issue.

STAT: Covid-19 has exposed cracks in the global medicines supply chain. We need to fix them (June 2, 2020)

  • “Now is the time to address these vulnerabilities and enhance our ability to respond to pandemics and other public health crises.”:
    • “Increase geographic diversity in manufacturing”
    • “Ensure supply of critical medicines”
    • “Increase transparency and enhance global cooperation”
    • “Strengthen regulatory systems and quality assurance”

SciAm: Three Ways to Make Coronavirus Drugs in a Hurry (June 1, 2020)

  • Researchers are searching through 20,000 FDA approved drugs for other conditions to see if any are effective against Covid-19. 133 of these became experimental drugs by mid-April and 49 are entering clinical trials.
  • 12 potential treatments are described on a chart.
  • The goal is to have a pill that can work early to prevent severe illness.
  • “By limiting symptoms, drugs may be able to keep some patients out of the hospital and keep hospitalized patients off of ventilators. They can serve as a bridge to survival as other scientists rush to develop the real virus slayer: a vaccine.”

STAT: Gilead’s remdesivir shows some benefit in patients with moderate Covid-19, new data show (June 1, 2020)

  • This study adds to evidence that remdesivir is effective in treating patients moderately ill with Covid-19 (those hospitalized but not on a ventilator). It is now already widely accepted that this drug is effective in reducing the time in the hospital for patients who are seriously ill.

nature: Safety fears over hyped drug hydroxychloroquine spark global confusion
(May 29, 2020)

  • “Early laboratory studies suggested that the drug, as well as a similar medicine named chloroquine, might interfere with replication of the coronavirus, but trials in humans have been inconclusive so far.”
  • “Researchers have been waiting for results from a number of randomized, controlled clinical trials testing hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.” Because of negative publicity many trials have now been halted. Yet many scientists find it is very important to continue with these trials.

NYT: Scientists Question Validity of Major Hydroxychloroquine Study (May 29, 2020)

Science: Can plasma from COVID-19 survivors help save others? (May 27, 2020)

  • Convalescent plasma has been known to help in recovery with other illnesses, such as the Spanish Flu of 1918. Some reports are promising with regards to Covid-19, but more trials are needed.
  • “The difference in mortality—12.8% in the plasma group and 24.4% in the control group—was not statistically significant, but when the team compared the patients’ supplemental oxygen needs after transfusion, those on plasma did significantly better.”

NYT: Federal Scientists Finally Publish Remdesivir Data (May 23, 2020)

Reuters: Beyond politics, gold-standard COVID-19 trials test malaria drug taken by Trump
(May 22, 2020)

STAT: What a big new study on malaria drugs as Covid-19 treatments tells us — and what it doesn’t (May 22, 2020)

  • A recent study on choroquine and hydroxychloroquine failed to give significant evidence that these drugs are effective against Covid-19. Moreover, it showed that these drugs have a dangerous side effect of causing irregular heart rhythms.

To obtain conclusive results, a drug trial must take into account the placebo effect, whereby the belief by either the patient or the doctor that a medication will have a specific effect can bias results. It is an accepted scientific “fact” that belief alone may affect the outcome of taking a drug. There are currently ongoing double-blind trials where neither the patient nor the doctor know whether the patient is taking the drug being tested or a placebo. Although it seems that many scientists are not expecting positive results from these trials, it will be interesting to see what they tell us. – MH

hydroxychloroquine

MNT: Using convalescent blood to treat COVID-19: The whys and hows (May 22, 2020)

STAT: Life with lupus: Trump’s hydroxychloroquine hype puts my treatment — and himself — at risk (May 20, 2020)

  • The author suffers from lupus (a disease that inflames the skin) and needs hydroxychloroquine, a drug that works for her condition. She fears that the hype (the exaggerated publicity) of this drug, for which there is too little evidence that it can treat Covid-19, will keep her and others from obtaining it for a disease it is known to treat effectively.
hydroxychloroquine tablet

nature: Dozens of coronavirus drugs are in development — what happens next?
(May 14, 2020)

  • One major challenge is the supply-chain (series of steps in obtaining materials, producing, transporting, etc.) negatively affected by the pandemic.
  • Another major challenge is manufacturing up to hundreds of millions of doses.
  • Remdesivir depends on a complex chemical synthesis [production] that takes several weeks and would be badly hurt by shortages of required ingredients.
  • Demand will surely be much greater than the supply of the first drugs available.

STAT: Gilead should ditch remdesivir and focus on its simpler and safer ancestor
(May 14, 2020)

  • Remdesivir is a pro-drug (the patient’s body needs first to process it chemically) requiring five steps in the body before it becomes GS-441524 triphosphate, the active compound.
  • Gilead has also developed GS-441524, also a pro-drug, but GS-441524 triphosphate is produced in the body in only three steps. GS-441524 also can be manufactured in three steps instead of the seven steps for remdesivir.

TBIJ: Stretched, secret supply chains hold Covid-19 patients’ lives in the balance
(May 12, 2020)

STAT: Inside the NIH’s controversial decision to stop its big remdesivir study
(May 11, 2020)

  • “The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has described to STAT in new detail how it made its fateful decision: to start giving remdesivir to patients who had been assigned to receive a placebo in the study, essentially limiting researchers’ ability to collect more data about whether the drug saves lives — something the study, called ACTT-1, suggests but does not prove. In the trial, 8% of the participants given remdesivir died, compared with 11.6% of the placebo group, a difference that was not statistically significant.”

STAT: Giving blood thinners to severely ill Covid-19 patients is gaining ground
(May 6, 2020)

  • “Treating Covid-19 patients with medicines to prevent blood clots might help reduce deaths in patients on ventilators, based on new observational data.”
  • “A team from Mount Sinai Health System in New York on Wednesday reported better results for hospitalized Covid-19 patients who received anticoagulant drugs compared to patients who didn’t.”

STAT: Watch: How does Gilead’s experimental drug remdesivir work against the coronavirus? (VIDEO) (May 4, 2020)

  • The polymerase enzyme that copies the virus’s RNA inside the host cell may confuse nearby remdesivir molecules with the adenine unit of the RNA and add it instead to the new strand. This molecule then blocks any more units from being added (after about five more are added), thus sabotaging the process.

nature: Portraits of a viral enzyme could aid hunt for drugs (May 4, 2020)

  • A research team in Germany used “cryo-electron microscopy” to determine the shape of the polymerase enzyme that copies SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a host cell (see STAT article summary above). A better understanding of this enzyme could lead to the development of antiviral drugs that affect its function.

CNN: FDA issues emergency-use authorization for remdesivir to treat hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19 (May 1, 2020)

  • “The experimental drug remdesivir has been approved to treat hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a letter on Friday. Remdesivir is the first authorized therapy drug for Covid-19 in the United States.”

BBC: Coronavirus and chloroquine: Is there evidence it works? (April 28, 2020)

  • There are “risks of serious side effects, including renal and liver damage.”
  • “More than 20 trials carried out, including in the US, UK, Spain and China.”
  • France has authorised its use but has warned of side effects.
  • India has recommended it as a preventative treatment for healthcare workers but warns it is “experimental” and only for emergency situations.
  • “Several Middle Eastern countries have authorised its use or are conducting trials. This includes Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.”
  • There are reports of people poisoned from chloroquine overdoses.

nature: Mechanisms of action of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine: implications for rheumatology

IJAA: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial

CR: Doctors on the Front Lines Are Testing New Therapies to Treat COVID-19 (April 15, 2020)

  • An excellent summary by Consumer Reports, simply explained, of the current state of drug development.

JAMA: Pharmacologic treatments for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) A Review (April 13, 2020)

  • “The speed and volume of clinical trials launched to investigate potential therapies for COVID-19 highlight both the need and capability to produce high-quality evidence even in the middle of a pandemic. No therapies have been shown effective to date.”

WHO: “Solidarity” clinical trial for COVID-19 treatments (April 2020)

CNN: How a 100-year-old vaccine for tuberculosis could help fight the novel coronavirus (April 10, 2020)

NYT: 7 Answers to Questions About the Malaria Drug Trump Keeps Pushing (April 9, 2020)

  • There are still many unanswered questions about hydroxychloroquine and it is possible that it is dangerous to use when certain conditions develop that Covid-19 causes.

NPR: Promising Drug On The Horizon For COVID-19 (April 6, 2010)

  • EIDD-2801 is a pill that will hopefully keep the virus from making copies of itself.

STAT: GlaxoSmithKline and Vir aim to take on Covid-19 with antibodies and CRISPR (April 6, 2020)

  • “Antibody drugs could be used in three possible ways: to prevent people at high risk, such as healthcare workers, from ever becoming infected; to prevent those infected from developing severe respiratory problems that can make Covid-19 … deadly; and to treat people who are already in respiratory distress.”

Tsinghua and partners to develop neutralising antibodies against COVID-19 (April 1, 2020)

  • “Researchers … have identified various diverse and potent neutralising monoclonal antibodies that are claimed to have therapeutic potential against SARS CoV-2. These antibodies have been characterised from coronavirus patients in China who have recovered from their infection …”

Chloroquine, Ibuprofen and Beyond: Doctors Discuss Latest Treatments, and Treatment Rumors, For COVID-19 (April 2, 2020)

Every Vaccine and Treatment in Development for COVID-19, So Far (April 1, 2020)

FDA-approved drugs could help fight COVID-19 (March 19, 2020)

Science: Some Clinical Trial Data (March 19, 2020)

NYT: A Promising Treatment for Coronavirus Fails (March 18, 2020)

  • “There is no solid evidence yet that anything works, but the epidemic is moving so fast that doctors are trying approaches where even preliminary data suggests there may be a benefit. Many feel they are on their own to develop treatment protocols. Federal health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend supportive care, but have said there is no evidence yet to support antiviral drugs or treatments for inflammation…For critically ill patients suffering from intense inflammatory reactions, called a cytokine storm, some centers are trying a drug called tocilizumab.”

CNN: Remdesivir drug shows promise — but it is far from a coronavirus cure
(April 30, 2020)

  • “It improved recovery time for coronavirus patients from 15 to 11 days. That’s similar to the effect that the influenza drug Tamiflu has on flu.”
  • “The study also showed that 8% of patients who took remdesivir died compared to 11% of patients who received the placebo. However, there were not enough deaths to make those numbers statistically significant.”
  • “The value, instead, is more in what the study’s results represent — that a drug can indeed have an impact on Covid-19.”

BBC: Coronavirus cure: When will we have a drug to treat it? (April 30, 2020)

STAT: Gilead says critical study of Covid-19 drug shows patients are responding to treatment (April 29, 2020)

  • This is “the first treatment shown to improve outcomes in patients infected with” Covid-19.
  • “[T]he NIAID study, which was not expected to be released so soon, was by far the most important and rigorously designed test of remdesivir in Covid-19. The study compared remdesivir to placebo in 800 patients…”

nature: Hopes rise on coronavirus drug remdesivir (April 29, 2020)

  • The NIAID results put a new sheen on remdesivir. “It may not be the wonder drug that everyone’s looking for, but if you can stop some patients from becoming critically ill, that’s good enough”
  • Remdesivir works by gumming up an enzyme that some viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, use to replicate. In February, researchers showed that the drug reduces viral infection in human cells grown in a laboratory.

Hungary Today: Coronavirus: Blood Plasma Therapy Promising, Recovered Patients Asked to Donate Blood (April 29, 2020)

  • “In a scientific collaboration, two patients from Semmelweis University who tested positive for coronavirus, have received the already licensed serum infused with the blood plasma of healed COVID-19 patients. The serum was developed by a group of Hungarian research physicians, together with Semmelweis University and the Virology Center of the University of Pécs.”

BBC: Coronavirus and chloroquine: Is there evidence it works? (April 28, 2020)

  • There are “risks of serious side effects, including renal and liver damage.”
  • “More than 20 trials carried out, including in the US, UK, Spain and China.”
  • France has authorised its use but has warned of side effects.
  • India has recommended it as a preventative treatment for healthcare workers but warns it is “experimental” and only for emergency situations.
  • “Several Middle Eastern countries have authorised its use or are conducting trials. This includes Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.”
  • There are reports of “people poisoned from overdoses of chloroquine”.

STAT: WHO launches ambitious global project to develop Covid-19 medical products
(April 24, 2020)

  • “[A] key goal is to level the global playing field so that any products will be available to rich and poor populations alike.”

Reuters: Blood-pressure drugs are in the crosshairs of COVID-19 research (April 23, 2020)

  • A clue is the “disproportionate number” of Covid-19 patients with high blood pressure.
  • Blood-pressure drugs might increase the number of ACE2 enzymes on a cell’s surface in order to raise levels of a hormone that dilates blood vessels, but the ACE2 enzymes are the sites where the virus strikes and where its RNA enters the cell.
  • “Other evidence, however, suggests the infection’s interference with ACE2 may lead to higher levels of a hormone that causes inflammation, which can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a dangerous build-up of fluid in the lungs.”

CNN: Study finds no benefit, higher death rate in patients taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 (April 22, 2020)

  • This report describes the research article pre-print (not yet peer reviewed or published) found on medRxiv.com.

BBC: Coronavirus cure: When will we have a drug to treat it? (April 22, 2020)

  • “There are three broad approaches being investigated:
    • Antiviral drugs that directly affect the coronavirus’s ability to thrive inside the body
    • [Immunosuppressant drugs] that can calm the immune system – patients become seriously ill when their immune system overreacts and starts causing collateral damage to the body [in a cytokine storm]
    • Antibodies, either from survivors’ blood or made in a lab, that can attack the virus”

WSJ: When to Reopen: What We Know About Coronavirus Tests, Treatment and Vaccines
(April 17, 2020)

NIH: Antiviral remdesivir prevents disease progression in monkeys with COVID-19
(April 17, 2020)

  • “Early treatment with the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir significantly reduced clinical disease and damage to the lungs of rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to National Institutes of Health scientists.”