Possible sets of drugs for coronavirus treatment

A group of scientists led by Dr. Sameera R. Samarakoon at the Institute of Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo has recently discovered a possible sets of United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs which can be used as prophylactic treatment for COVID-19 by using computer-based drug designing methods.

His group including Dr. Samarakoon, Dr. Kanishka Senathilake and Prof. Kamani Thennekoon, further said that they will publish their findings within the next few days among the scientific community. Dr. Samarakoon further said that that, if the Chinese medical authorities are happy about the findings, the Chinese medical officers can directly go for further clinical trials or applications since the predicted drugs have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, USA.

Scientists worldwide were struggling to find the type of solution for the disease. New Coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China and continues to spread rapidly during the last couple of months. On February 11, 2020, the WHO named the disease 'coronavirus disease 2019' (abbreviated “COVID-19”).

The Chinese health officials have reported more than 75,000 COVID-19 cases in China and the virus is reportedly spreading from person-to-person in the other provinces. COVID-19 is mainly associated with travel from Wuhan, and have also been reported in growing numbers internationally, including Sri Lanka. (Gayan Suriya Arachchi)