Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic posed a serious public health concern and started a race against time for researchers to discover an effective and safe therapy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. This review aims to describe the history, efficacy, and safety of five potential therapeutics for COVID-19, remdesivir, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma. A literature review was conducted through October 2020 to identify published studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of these five potential therapeutics. Clinical improvement was used to assess the efficacy, while reported withdrawals from study participation and adverse events were used to evaluate the safety. In total, 95 clinical studies (6 interventional and 89 observational studies) were obtained, of which 42 were included in this review. The evaluation of the efficacy and safety profiles is challenging due to the limitations of the clinical studies on one hand, and the limited number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the other. Moreover, there was insufficient evidence to support repurposing remdesivir, favipiravir, and tocilizumab for COVID-19.
Highlights
Coronaviruses have been the cause of three outbreaks over the past two decades, starting with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002–2003 [1], Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 [2], and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019–2020 [3]
This review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety profiles of five agents proposed for the treatment of COVID-19: remdesivir, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma
The total number of studies retrieved after searching PubMed for studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of remdesivir, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma in COVID-19 patients was 95 clinical studies (6 interventional and 89 observational studies), as presented in Figure 1, and of which 42 studies were included in this review
Summary
Coronaviruses have been the cause of three outbreaks over the past two decades, starting with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002–2003 [1], Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 [2], and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019–2020 [3]. These three pathogens are all members of the same family of viruses, the novel coronavirus has posed a more serious public health challenge due to its rapid and large-scale spread.
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