Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been an ongoing public health crisis since the end of 2019; besides vaccine development, there have been major research efforts focused on developing antiviral therapeutics. Remdesivir was the first US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiviral drug for COVID-19. Subsequently, the FDA granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for three monoclonal antibody treatments, including sotrovimab or a combination of casirivimab and imdevimab, or bamlanivimab and etesevimab, each of which targets the coronavirus spike protein to block viral entry. Most recently, Britain granted conditional authorization for the ribonucleoside analog molnupiravir, developed by Merck as a viral replication inhibitor. The protease inhibitor PF-07321332 developed by Pfizer and boosted by ritonavir showed promising results in a phase III clinical trial, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% compared with placebo.
