European researchers detailed their findings in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. They found that several already approved drugs could be repurposed to fight COVD-19.
The researchers reviewed information on the discovery and development of broad-spectrum antiviral agents, which target viruses from two or more different viral families. They summarized their findings for 120 drugs and created a free database. Of those, 31 could possibly be used to treat COVID-19 infections.
“For example, teicoplanin, oritavancin, dalbavancin and monensin are approved antibiotics that have been shown to inhibit corona- and other viruses in the laboratory,” said Denis Kainov, PhD, senior author on the paper and an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway.
Clinical investigations have begun into the effectiveness of five drug candidates for treating COVID-19, the researchers said.
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