In December 2019, the sudden emergence of severe respiratory disease
caused by novel coronavirus-2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China has become
a public health emergency. As of June 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 9,000,000 and mortality of more
than 450,000 individuals, leading to devastating consequences worldwide. The
persistent human-to-human transmission of nCoV-19 has prompted scientists to
develop the treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Moreover, it has been
declared as a pandemic and there is an urgent need for the development of treatment.
However, there is no specific and effective treatment approved against COVID-19 to
date. Developing a new drug is a time-consuming process, which is impractical to face
the immediate global challenge. Thus, drug repurposing or drug repositioning is a
strategy that allows the use of existing molecules against new indications. This chapter
summarized various drugs repurposed against coronavirus disease 2019 along with the
current challenges and future perspectives of drug repurposing against COVID-19.
Keywords: Coronavirus, Coronavirus disease 2019, Drug repositioning, Drug
repurposing, Novel coronavirus-2019, Pandemic, Severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2.
