Alternatives to Remdesivir: Drug repurposing for inhibition of SARSCoV2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase

Abstract Even after more than a year of the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, a specific treatment for the disease has not been discovered. Vaccination programmes are being rolled out as the fastest pace possible but achievement of herd immunity will take time.[1] Many drugs like favipiravir, remdesivir and tocilizumab are being used for the treatment of this disease but reports published by the World Health Organization and the New England Journal of Medicine shows that they do not produce any significant clinical results. In this study, by molecular docking a large set of drugs has been used to replace remdesivir in RdRp protein so that they can produce the same action and therefore provide suitable alternatives for clinical trials and emergency use. The drugs identified in the study are saquinavir, cefoperazone, gliquidone, nelfinavir, 5-methyltetrahyrofolate among various others.