Clinical research progress in treatment of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) with favipiravir

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the urgent need to develop therapeutic drugs to respond to disease progression and treatment of patients. Drug repur- posing is one of the potential ways to rapidly find treatments for emerging viral infection. Favipiravir is a novel broad-spectrum antiviral drug that has been approved for new and re-emerging pandemic influenza. As a potential drug against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, favipiravir is currently under clinical trials in several countries and has shown promising results in clinical studies. This paper reviews the clinical studies on the treatment of COVID-19 with favipiravir or combination with other drugs by focusing on the data about dose, trial design, efficacy and safety in China, Japan, Russia and India. Favipiravir with proven safety profiles has proved to be effective in improving viral RNA clearance or clinical recovery in patients with mild and moderate symptoms. This review will help gain insights into the evidence based role of favipiravir in antiviral therapy of COVID-19.