As government funding and pharmaceutical companies have focused on developing vaccines to prevent COVID-19, the development of drugs to treat people early in the course of the disease has stalled, which threatens U.S. efforts to end the pandemic, Politico reported May 24.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority suspended calls for new COVID-19 drugs in May, partly because of a lack of funding, a senior HHS official told Politico. The authority is funding nine clinical trials for COVID-19 drugs, but eight are focused on more severe illness, and only one targets mild illness.
A lack of drugs to treat mildly ill COVID-19 patients means the world may never completely get rid of COVID-19, researchers told Politico. A senior health official also told Politico there's little incentive to develop new COVID-19 drugs because there's no market for products that treat people who aren't bedridden with the virus.
An ideal treatment would be an antiviral pill patients could take shortly after learning they were exposed to COVID-19, or shortly after they get sick, Politico reported. That would be similar to the approach researchers took during the AIDS crisis, and would be preferable to infused or inhaled drugs.
But antivirals take a long time to perfect, as developing them requires a highly specific knowledge of a virus's biology, Politico reported.
An HHS spokesperson told Politico that developing COVID-19 therapies is an integral element of the administration's pandemic response.
"We are pulling all levers to accelerate the clinical development and manufacturing of therapeutic candidates most likely to complement the vaccine effort, including focusing on antivirals," the spokesperson told Politico.
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