A Rapid Review of Potential Drug Treatments for Children with COVID-19

Abstract

The paediatric population constitutes a much smaller proportion of COVID-19 patients and seems to be less severely affected. However, the massive numbers of COVID-19 infections mean that many children require treatment in hospital. In the concerted and wide-ranging effort to discover a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19, paediatric involvement is necessary. This review aims to identify leading potential drug treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 that are being investigated with children involved. Clinicaltrials.gov, WHO Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP) and RAPS COVID-19 vaccine tracker webportals were searched for clinical trials in phase 3 that involved children below 15 years of age. Any preliminary results released were searched online. The review found 25 phase 3 drug trials with paediatric participants and 2 vaccine trials. No preliminary findings were found. Remdesivir appears to be a leading candidate drug treatment and 2 vaccines candidates, inactivated nCoV-19 (Sinopharm) and ChAdOx1 (Oxford University), are recruiting children in large phase 3 trials. No treatments are currently licensed for COVID-19 but results from numerous trials are eagerly awaited.