On March 31, 2020, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
introduced a specially designed
"emergency program"—dubbed the Coronavirus
Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP)—to provide patients
with faster access to new COVID-19 treatments. The CTAP allows FDA
to "move new therapies to patients as quickly as possible,
while at the same time finding out whether they are helpful or
harmful."
Given the rapidly increasing rate of COVID-19 confirmed cases
and fatalities in the United States, efforts to streamline FDA
processes may prove crucial to uncovering and delivering viable
treatments.
Currently, a number of therapeutic options for the treatment of
COVID-19 are being evaluated, including antiviral drugs (like
remdesivir) that could treat this specific virus and so-called host
targets (such as interleukin-6 receptor inhibitors) that may reduce
lung inflammation or improve lung function for COVID-19 patients.
As of March 31, FDA reported that 10 COVID-19
