ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread and have grave health and socioeconomic consequences worldwide. Researchers have raced to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 so that effective therapeutic targets can be discovered. This review summarises the key pharmacotherapies that are being investigated for treatment of COVID-19, including antiviral, immunomodulator and anticoagulation strategies.
Subject(s)
Anticoagulants/therapeutic use , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , COVID-19 Drug Treatment , Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use , Immunologic Factors/therapeutic use , Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Adenosine Monophosphate/analogs & derivatives , Adenosine Monophosphate/therapeutic use , Alanine/analogs & derivatives , Alanine/therapeutic use , Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized/therapeutic use , Azetidines/therapeutic use , COVID-19/therapy , Colchicine/therapeutic use , Dexamethasone/therapeutic use , Humans , Immunization, Passive , Ivermectin/therapeutic use , Janus Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Purines/therapeutic use , Pyrazoles/therapeutic use , SARS-CoV-2 , Sulfonamides/therapeutic use , COVID-19 SerotherapyABSTRACT
The UK government recently decided to extend the interval between the first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from 3 weeks to 12 weeks to maximise the number of people receiving the initial dose, despite the trials only providing vaccine efficacy data based on a schedule of 21 days between doses. This editorial discusses whether there is evidence to support this policy change.