An updated review on potential therapeutic drug candidates, vaccines and an insight on patents filed for COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19 was recognized in December 2019 in China and as of October5(th), the pandemic was swept through 216 countries and infected around 34,824,108 individuals, thus posing an unprecedented threat to world's health and economy. Several researchers reported that, a significant mutation in membrane proteins and receptor binding sites of preceding severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) to turned as novel SARS-CoV-2 virus and disease was named as COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019). Unfortunately, there is no specific treatment available for COVID-19 patients. The lessons learned from the past management of SARS-CoV and other pandemics, have provided some insights to treat COVID-19. Currently, therapies like anti-viral treatment, immunomodulatory agents, plasma transfusion and supportive intervention etc., are using to treat the COVID-19. Few of these were proven to provide significant therapeutic benefits in treating the COVID-19, however no drug is approved by the regulatory agencies. As the fatality rate is high in patients with comorbid conditions, we have also enlightened the current in-line treatment therapies and specific treatment strategies in comorbid conditions to combat the emergence of COVID-19. In addition, pharmaceutical, biological companies and research institutions across the globe have begun to develop thesafe and effective vaccine for COVID-19. Globally around 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop the COVID-19 vaccine and here we have discussed about their current status of development. Furthermore, recent patents filed in association with COVID-19 was elaborated. This can help many individuals, researchers or health workers, in applying these principles for diagnosis/prevention/management/treatment of the current pandemic.