Recent Approaches of Repositioning and Traditional Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak

The recent emergence of novel, pathogenic COVID-19 disease associated with SARSCoV- 2 virus in China and its rapid national and international spread pose a global health emergency. The development of a new drug is tedious and may take decades to develop and involve multiple steps like the development of prototypes and phase I to III human trials, which involve the study on small to large populations to examine the safety and side effects associated with the drug under trials. Due to continous increase in the number of confirmed cases and deaths, there is an urgent need to develop a drug that is effective to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus with fewer side effects to the human body. Therefore, this review focus on the latest advances in the development for the treatment of COVID-19 disease associated with SARS-CoV-2 with repositioning of already marketed drug with small molecules, as well as Chinese traditional medicines with established safety and efficacy which are being used for different therapeutic uses.