FDA Approved Drugs Show Promise Against COVID-19

TUESDAY, March 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Two new studies each suggest that dozens of drugs already approved for use in the United States may prove effective against the new coronavirus.

“Repurposing these FDA-approved drugs could be a fast way to get treatment to patients who otherwise have no option,” explained the co-author of one of the studies, Dr. Hesham Sadek. He’s professor in the departments of internal medicine, molecular biology and biophysics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in Houston.

However, experts stressed that this research is still in its early stages, so people shouldn’t try any of the drugs now to prevent or treat COVID-19.

Right now, “there is no specific medicine recommended to prevent or treat the new coronavirus,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Some specific treatments are under investigation, and will be tested through clinical trials,” the WHO said, according to the Washington Post.

As COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, sickens hundreds of thousands worldwide, the race is on to find a drug that might help save severely ill patients.

But even with rapid government approval, it could take months to develop new drugs from scratch that might be effective against the virus, Sadek explained in a UT Southwestern news release.

That led his team to conduct computer modeling studies on certain drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to assess their potential in combating the coronavirus.

The results showed that the most promising drugs included several antiviral drugs — including Darunavir, Nelfinavir, and Saquinavir — and several other types of drugs, including: the ACE inhibitor Moexipril; the chemotherapy drugs Daunorubicin and Mitoxantrone; the painkiller Metamizole; the antihistamine Bepotastine; and the antimalarial drug Atovaquone.

Another promising candidate is the cholesterol-lowering statin rosuvastatin, which is sold under the brand name Crestor. It’s already taken by millions of patients around the world to lower their cholesterol, is safe, inexpensive and readily available, Sadek noted.

The results were published March 19 on a pre-print server called ChemRxiv; they have not yet been subject to peer review.