Therapeutic approaches to tackle COVID-19: An overview

: A series of an acute atypical respiratory disease occurred during December 2019 in Wuhan, China, that quickly metamorphosed as a pandemic, spreading across the globe, leaving more than 104,911,186 infected and more than 2,278,579 dead, in its wake within a year. This Novel Coronavirus, was also called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease was called Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19). On 30 January 2020, The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, declared the novel coronavirus outbreak, a public health emergency of international concern and flagged off WHO's highest level of alarm. : To elaborate the various drug therapies used in trials and vaccines available for COVID-19 across the globe. : We compiled the literature searches under a single heading and scrutinized over 154 articles, for extracting data on the various pharmacotherapeutic approaches available to treat COVID-19. : Despite wide and varied treatment guidelines being available, the cure or prevention is still elusive for COVID-19. The categoric efficacy of vaccines must be proved to tackle the fast-mutating coronavirus. : Current medical management is largely supportive with no targeted therapy available. Several drugs including lopinavir-ritonavir, remdesivir, antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine, steroids, anticoagulants, and antidiabetic drugs like metformin have been tried in clinical trials. Vaccines targeting the three different components of SARS-CoV-2 viruses, in different phases of clinical trials world-wide, have been made available.