As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hasevolved, the search for vaccines and treatments continuesin earnest. This pandemic is causing sharp increasesin morbidity and mortality and an urgency to make therapieswidely available. The COVID-19 pandemic reveals thelimited preparedness of health systems worldwide, andhealthcare workers have very few options to combat thisemergent disease and save patients’ lives. This search fornew vaccines and treatments is a test of our collective abilityto assess medications, presenting both an opportunity anda challenge to drug research, development, and approvalapparatus. Well-conducted randomized, controlled trialsin acutely ill patients will be needed to evaluate survival,hospitalization, number of days spent in intensive care, andneed for a ventilator. Current strategies generally use oneof two approaches: novel treatments targeted against thevirus and repurposed drugs with well-characterized clinicalsafety and pharmacokinetics.
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