More Than 500 Therapeutics Being Investigated for COVID-19

Pharmacy Times spoke with Michael Haydock, senior director of content for cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious diseases at Informa Pharma Intelligence, about investigational therapeutics for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and what’s in the pipeline.

Haydock said there are approximately 500 drugs being investigated, many of which are repurposed drugs. These options have an advantage because they already have known safety profiles, meaning they can progress through trials more quickly.

Remdesivir (Veklury, Gilead Sciences) was the first drug approved in the United States, indicated for hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Haydock said trials showed a reduction in recovery time and a slight mortality benefit, though it was not statistically significant. Although some trials had contradictory evidence and did not show as much benefit, Haydock said he believes remdesivir will continue to be used until there are better options because it has a good safety profile and is better than nothing.

Haydock also discussed investigative antibody therapies, whether they should be used as prophylaxis or for mild COVID-19, and immunomodulatory options.