The Pipeline of Therapeutics Testing During the Emergency Phase of the COVID-19 Outbreak

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a serious threat to the sustainability of healthcare systems and is currently having a significant effect on living conditions worldwide. No therapeutic agent has yet proven to be effective for the treatment of COVID-19. The management of this disease currently relies on supportive care and the off-label and compassionate use of antivirals and immunomodulators. Nevertheless, there has been a great worldwide effort to progress research and test the efficacy and safety/tolerability profiles of numerous candidate agents that may positively affect the various clinical syndromes associated with COVID-19. In parallel, vaccination and chemoprophylaxis strategies are being investigated. This article provides a summary of interventional studies targeting COVID-19 during the emergency phase of the outbreak to broadly inform clinicians and researchers on what happened and what they can expect in upcoming months. The clinicaltrials.gov database and the European Union (EU) Clinical Trials Register were investigated on March 31, 2020, to identify all ongoing phase 1–4 research protocols testing pharmacological interventions targeting SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or clinical syndromes associated with COVID-19. Overall, six phase 1, four phase 1-2, 14 phase 2, ten phase 2-3, 19 phase 3, and nine phase 4 studies were identified, and the features of these studies are described in the present review. We also provide an updated overview of the change overtime in the pipeline following this emergency phase and based on the current epidemiology of the COVID-19 pandemic.