Can drug repurposing strategies be the solution to the COVID-19 crisis?

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disastrous human and economic costs, mainly due to the initial lack of specific treatments. Complementary to immunotherapies, drug repurposing is possibly the best option to arrive at COVID-19 treatments in the short term.

Areas covered: Repurposing prospects undergoing clinical trials or with some level of evidence emerging from clinical studies are overviewed. The authors discuss some possible intellectual property and commercial barriers to drug repurposing, and strategies to facilitate equitable access to incoming therapeutic solutions, highlighting the importance of collaborative drug discovery models. Based on a critical analysis of the available literature about in silico screens against SARS-CoV-2 main protease, the authors illustrate how frequently overconfident conclusions are being drawn in COVID-19-related literature.

Expert opinion: Most of the current clinical trials on potential COVID-19 treatments are, in fact, drug repurposing examples. In October 2020, the FDA approved a repurposed antiviral, remdesivir, as the first treatment for COVID-19. Considering the high expectations invested in approaching therapeutic solutions, the scientific community must be careful not to raise unrealistic expectations. Today more than ever, the conclusions drawn in scientific reports have to be fully supported by the level of evidence, avoiding any sort of unfounded speculation.