Question

COVID-19 continues to cause major disruptions in late 2020. Write any post of your choosing that discusses COVID-19 from a pharmacological standpoint. Your post MUST contain information that we have learned about antivirals and/or vaccines in this unit to receive any credit. If you so desire, you may use additional sources as references, but please be on high alert - there is a LOT of fake news about COVID-19, so you MUST use trusted sources (such as CDC, WHO, Wall Street Journal, etc) and must not use any sources with questionable accuracy. Do not forget our Academic Integrity policy if choosing to use additional sources for this post. (NOTE: 200-400 words)

Answer 1

Solution

COVID-19 pandemic becomes a major health hazards all over the world. Almost 9 million confirmed cases till date and the count still growing worldwide. Scientists all over the world have been working on the potential treatments including antiviral drugs and vaccines. Few companies are working on repurposing of existing drugs and some other companies have engaged themselves in developing potential vaccine candidates. Firstly the antiviral drug chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have got the emergency use authorization by FDA although later it was revoked. Further Remdesevir got the emergency use authorization (EUA) certificate. This drug is still in the phase of clinical trial to see whether it is effective to combat COVID-19 or not though few report suggested that the drug met the preliminary end point without any adverse event. Further early stage trial indicates that the drug Olumiant when added to remdesivir can able to shorten the hospital stays for COVID-19 affected population. More over the antiviral drug Arbidol was also tested with lopinavir or ritonavir as a treatment regimen. In addition to that Favipiravir is still in clinical trial in more than 40 countries. Further monoclonal antibodies are also a choice of treatment as it helps to trigger the immune system against the virus. Convalescent plasma is also in line for the treatment of COVID-19 and thus in the way to clinical trial. Immune modulator including baricitinib and IL-6 inhibitor are also a choice of treatment and in the steps of clinical trial as well. Though all the above drugs are in different stages of clinical trial no candidate till date shows the optimum therapeutic effect towards COVID-19 disease. Therefore scientists are looking forward to develop a vaccine for the prevention of the infection. In this scenario many companies are working on different vaccine candidates. Fusogenix DNA vaccine is based on proteo-lipid vehicle that initiates genetic payload directly into the cells. Further ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 which is an adenovirus vaccine vector presently in the way to clinical trial as well. A single dose intranasal vaccine AdCOVID was developed which is undergoing animal studies. Further OyaGen’s OYA1 has shown sturdy antiviral efficacy against SARS-COV2 virus. Among many vaccines that are presently in different clinical stages, only a few and promising candidates have been enlisted. Hence in conclusion it is to be noted that the whole world is looking forward for a vaccine candidate and it's effective distribution globally.