Treating and preventing COVID-19: how close are we?

While COVID-19 continues to spread and claim lives across the UK and globally, hope is renewed almost daily as ongoing treatment and vaccine trials report new results. Experimental drugs are being tested, with some even being approved, as emergency measures are being taken to fast-track potential solutions to the worldwide problem of the coronavirus pandemic.

The antibody drug, Regeneron, was partially credited for successfully treating outgoing American President Donald Trump. It has now received emergency approval in the US for use in people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and who are deemed to be at risk of severe illness in the US. Regeneron is a combination of two potent antibodies made in the laboratory to mimic our immune response, physically adhering to the coronavirus and preventing it from penetrating the body's cells (BBC News, 2020).

Rheumatoid arthritis drug, tocilizumab, has also seen success, with early trial results showing its ability to significantly improve patient outcomes in critically ill people with severe-COVID-19 (Robinson, 2020). Early findings from the randomised, embedded, multifactorial, adaptive platform trial for community-acquired pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) suggest that tocilizumab has the potential to reduce mortality and time spent in intensive care (Robinson, 2020). While these results have not yet been published or peer-reviewed, which must be considered, they were released early because of their important potential clinical implications (Robinson, 2020).