Research and development of Chinese anti-COVID-19 drugs

The outbreak and spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) highlighted the impor-tance and urgency of the research and development of therapeutic drugs. Very early into the COVID-19 pandemic, China has begun developing drugs, with some notable progress. Herein, we summarizes the anti-COVID-19 drugs and promising drug candidates originally developed and researched in China. Furthermore, we discussed the developmental prospects, mechanisms of action, and advantages and dis-advantages of the anti-COVID-19 drugs in development, with the aim to contribute to the rational use of drugs in COVID-19 treatment and more effective development of new drugs against severe acute respi-ratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the variants. Neutralizing antibody is an effective approach to overcome COVID-19. However, drug resistance induced by rapid virus mutation will likely to challenge neutralizing antibodies. Taking into account current epidemic trends, small molecule drugs have a crucial role in fighting COVID-19 due to their significant advantage of convenient administration and affordable and broad-spectrum. Traditional Chinese medicines, including natural products and tradi-tional Chinese medicine prescriptions, contribute to the treatment of COVID-19 due to their unique mechanism of action. Currently, the research and development of Chinese anti-COVID-19 drugs have led to some promising achievements, thus prompting us to expect even more rapidly available solutions.(c) 2022 Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The outbreak of COVID-19 has emphasized the importance and urgency of developing therapeutic drugs, and China has made notable progress in this area. This article summarizes the anti-COVID-19 drugs and promising drug candidates developed in China, discussing their prospects, mechanisms of action, and advantages and disadvantages. It aims to contribute to the rational use of drugs in COVID-19 treatment and the development of new drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.