The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a great public health challenge around the world, especially given the urgency to identify effective drugs and develop a vaccine in a short period of time. Globally, there are several drug and vaccine candidates currently in clinical trials, yet it is not yet clear which will prove successful. This study addresses this gap by mapping the treatments and vaccine candidates currently in clinical trials and assessing the opinions on these candidates of virus-related researchers from all over the world. Clinical trial data were obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov and the survey’s respondents were authors of recent scientific publications related to viruses, SARS virus, coronavirus, and COVID-19 indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The results show that remdesivir, immunoglobulin from cured patients and plasma are considered the most promising treatments, and ChAdOx1 and mRNA-1273 the most promising vaccine candidates. They also indicate that a vaccine could be available within eighteen months.
For a copy of a pre-print go to https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.22483
Author(s): Bernardo Pereira Cabral, Luiza Braga, Fabio Batista Mota
Organization(s): Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Federal University of Bahia
Source: pre-print Journal of Medical Internet Research
Year: 2020